


Unforgivable

by UnderZeWeather



Series: Hellfire farm [1]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety, Existential Angst, Junimos are apple bastards, M/M, Slow Burn, Supernatural Creatures, Supernatural Elements, smut in later chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-04-08 07:36:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 89
Words: 253,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14100528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderZeWeather/pseuds/UnderZeWeather
Summary: After an epiphany after work, Apollyon realises the terrible situation he is in and escapes to Pelican Town to rebuild himself and the family farm. However things are never that simple and the carefully constructed walls he's been building are staring to crack all over again.The mystical forces are at work in the valley both evil and benign and have started to centre themselves on Apollyon while he just wants to live a normal farming life. But in a world of good and evil where most draw a hard line between what is morally acceptable and what is abhorrent can he even make the right choice?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for bothering to read this. I've logged in lord knows how many hours into this game and finally decided that I should write a fic about it. Hope you all enjoy it and please remember to leave a kudos or a comment.

The static buzz, menial beeping, and repetitive clacking on the keyboards used to be calming to him. It was sad to say that the mind numbing task of transferring data onto a spread sheet and checking over Joja’s inventory logs was calming to him. Check one page, type it in and yawn. Rinse and repeat. As long as he didn’t fall asleep at his desk or fuck up the Joja corporation’s higher ups didn’t care how many hours he worked, and well, he had racked up a lot of overtime.

Suddenly a mess of blond hair popped over the top of his cubical. “Yo, Polly. We’re going to go and hit the pub after work. You in or out?” This plucky ball of excitement was one of the newer members of the Joja family. Their will hadn’t been broken yet. In a month or two that would change.

“My name isn’t Polly. It’s Apollyon.” He muttered as he punched in a few more numbers. “If you can’t remember it just call me Al. Everyone else does. Steve.”

The blond pouted a little. “My name isn’t Steve. It’s June.”

Apollyon shrugged and quickly finished off his final spread sheet for the day. “Whatever.” He wasn’t one to be friendly with his co-workers, hell he hardly ever spoke to them at lunch, preferring to just eat his lunch at his desk. The only people he really talked to was his manager, the mail lady, and the random slew of interns that Joja employed. Legal slave labour.

“So are you coming out to drink with us or not?” June asked. “You hardly ever show up to any of the other company functions, so just come out and hang with us. Make work friends or something.”

“… Nah, I’d rather finish some stuff I’ve gotten behind on. Management will do my head in if I mess up this deadline.” He might have finished today’s workload, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t go through everything and check it again.

Almost as if the world was against him, his manager happened to walk by. June grinned at him and waved. “Hey, so is it okay if Polly comes out drinking with us tonight? He says he’s behind on work.”

“I wasn’t aware you were behind on anything.” Said his manager. He glanced over at Apollyon’s computer and shook his head. “You’ve finished your work for today. Just come out drinking with the rest of us.”

Apollyon could just feel a heavy weight slowly pushing down on his shoulder. Each word rolling out of everyone’s mouths making that weight heavier and heavier. “Oh, so I have… Who else is coming?”

June just grinned and started listing off people. “There’s Greg and Barry from accounting, Diana from admin, Rose and Tina from sector B’s IT crew, our manager, me and you. Small group.”

Suddenly the Joja corp jingle started to play as the bright green work light at the front of the room went out and the bright res rest button started flashing instead. Joja really seemed to treat its employees like animals. No, robots would be more accurate. That’s just how things were. The bigger the company the more expendable the workers.

“Let’s go.” Said June with a grin. “I wanna get there before Greg gets smashed. He’s such a light weight.”

So with much reluctance Apollyon ended up getting dragged to a bar to drink with his co-workers personally he’d rather be run over by the Zuzu city 9:15 bus than be here of all places. The pub looked welcoming enough. It seemed to have an Irish theme if the shamrocks and grotesque wooden leprechaun staked to the wall meant anything.

Everyone ordered a few rounds of drinks and happily downed themselves in alcohol. It disturbed Apollyon how easily everyone lost their damn minds, but he could understand it to an extent. Joja corp sucked the life out of everyone and everything it touched till they were nothing but an empty husk. 

He looked around at all the people around him, sighing internally when he could easily distinguish who had been working for Joja for longer. The more reserved the individual and stronger the drink the longer they had been there. Maybe some of them were alcoholics and used it to numb themselves like the way he used work to do the same thing?

He quickly pushed that thought out of his mind as he continued to listen to these random people talk about their random weekend activities. Two of the girls were going to have a spa day. Someone was going to go fishing. Someone else was going to catch up one some TV show they had fallen behind on. 

Apollyon wondered for a moment what he was going to do, but quickly squashed any idea that he was going to do something fantastical. He was going to do what he did every weekend; eat, sleep, and watch TV. None of those activities were really going to be much fun. He slept on a broken mattress in a rundown apartment, ate crappy instant ramen, and his TV’s volume had a mind of its own. If he made any deviation from what he usually did it would be to call his mum to see how she was going. But knowing her she was unlikely to pick up. Same with his dad.

As he begrudgingly accepted his mundane existence he hardly noticed one of the women slipping into the empty seat next to him. She was a brunet with long elegant hair. She was slightly flushed from the alcohol but still seemed somewhat capable of functioning on her own. “So is it real?”

“…Is what real miss?”

“Oh, Diana. I’m from admin.”

“Apollyon from sector D. So what’s real?”

Diana pointed to his face and grinned. “Your hair. Isn’t like natural black hair meant to have a blue or black shine? Why do you have a red shine?”

“I just do. Some people are like that.” It was true too, not once in his life had he dyed his hair. It just looked weird and that was that. 

Before she could ask what he was talking about a woman started rattling off about something in a foreign language. This just caused the native English speakers to laugh and tell her they didn’t know what she was saying. “Come on Tina,” slurred June. “No one knows what you’re saying when you speak that gibberish.”

Apollyon shook his head. “She’s speaking Portuguese. Duh.” 

“You know Portuguese?” Asked Diana. She seemed pretty impressed. “What else can you speak?”

“Eh, I can speak pretty much any language if I’m around someone who’s speaking it for long enough. But I can’t read it. Written words have never been my strong suit. That’s why I’m a numbers man.” He looked down at his drink; he had been nursing his cup of scotch for at least two hours now. All the ice had melted. He drained the glass and considered leaving.

“That’s cool, so if you are good with languages and stuff, why not get work as a translator or something?” She asked. “Would be good with war efforts on the front line with the Gotoro Empire and stuff… But then again you probably don’t like the feeling of getting shot at?”

Apollyon shrugged. He had considered going doing that, but the truth was he didn’t like the idea of fighting. Hell, he didn’t even really know why they were fighting the Gotoro Empire these days. As far as he knew it was an unfortunate mix of circumstances. It all made him feel uneasy and kind of dirty to be put in those kinds of circumstances.

Diana sighed. “Still, seems like a damn shame to waste your talent away punching numbers for Joja corp.”

True, punching numbers hand never been the truly ideal thing Apollyon wanted to do with his life, but it paid the bills. Kept him going day to day. Stopped him from thinking too much about anything. It was almost like working at Joja had beaten him mentally into submission. He really was a slave to the system at this point.

That realisation hit Apollyon hard. Was this what it was like to be human? Was this what it meant to be human? To just become a cog in the machine that was Joja corp? Was it an inevitable cycle? Would he eventually just leave Joja only to instantly be forced into working for Joja again? Sure the name and corporate structure would be different but in the end it would be the exact same wouldn’t it?

Realising having an existential crisis in public was probably frowned upon in polite human society, Apollyon excused himself. “Yeah, I need to go home now.”

“Aw, why?” Whined June. “You’ve only had like one drink.”

“… I have a doctor’s appointment early tomorrow and don’t want to stay up all night.”

His flimsy excuse seemed to be enough for the group and Apollyon was able to leave and catch a bus back to his neighbourhood. It was very depressing watching the glamorous night lights of the city with its fancy eye catching neon fade into the mundane yellow streetlights of the more residential areas.

He lived in a lower middle class area, the housing here was affordable for the time being. Lately there had been word going around that the government was going to try and gentrify the area. If that happened Apollyon would have to consider moving back in with his parents. He didn’t like that idea at all. They burnt all kinds of incense sticks and candles that made his eyes water and skin itch.

He got off at his stop and wandered back to his shoebox apartment. Glancing up at the sky he wondered if there was anything for him besides Joja. The stars said neither yes nor no. They just showed the Junimos trio constellation. Stupid spindly apple bastards. Apollon had a strong dislike for fables about those guys. They were meant to be forest spirits. Some versions of the stories his mum told him when he was younger stated that the Junimos were helpers of Yoba. He didn’t want to think about Yoba today.

Apollyon walked into his apartment and tossed his keys on the table as he walked straight into his bedroom. It was nothing impressive. Just a mattress on the floor, a closet, and a nightstand with an old wooden box on it. It was a little time capsule of his childhood. It was filled with all kinds of things he though were important when he was younger. Small toys, drawings, sea shells, some photos, and maybe a cool rock.

He licked off his shoes and collapsed onto the mattress. His jeans were the only pants he had with fabric strong enough not to get ripped to shreds on the broken bed springs. Apollyon rolled onto his back and looked up at the cracks on the ceiling. There were more today. A lot more. Soon those cracks would end up making a hole. A dark, black, empty void that would suck him in. He’d be sucked in and trapped in the dark with all the other fleshy things that lived in the dark.

That thought made his chest tighten and his anxiety to rise even higher than when he realised he was a slave to the Joja system.

The cracks were getting bigger.

In the end it was just going to be him alone in the dark. No one was ever going to care about him enough to be worried if he just vanished someday. He’d just go back to the dark and no one would care.

The cracks were getting bigger.

The relationship he had with his parents was strained at best. His mum was nice enough to him. She still loved him and made the effort when he made the effort so she’d probably be a little sad. His step dad on the other hand, that was a whole other story. He was nice enough, but always looked at him with disgust when he thoughts that he wasn’t paying attention.

The cracks were getting bigger.

The only one that would care about him going missing was his mum, but even then she would eventually feel relief if he was gone. It would be like ripping off a band aid. It would hurt for a while but then it would go away and be just like the band aid was never there.

The cracks were too big.

Panic finally set in and Apollyon quickly sat up and tried to pull himself off his mattress, knocking over the nightstand and the box in the process. He stared down at the carpet as he tried to ground himself back into reality. The cracks weren’t getting bigger. They were the same as they had always been. People would be sad if he was gone. He was here and he was okay.

He didn’t know how long he sat there calming himself, but when he finally did, he noticed the damage he had caused. He knocked over his nightstand which meant he knocked over his box, and everything in it has spilt out.

Apollyon groaned in frustration as he quickly put everything back; a few small plastic dinosaurs, some rhinestones he thought looked cool, a rock shaped like a monkey’s head, some wood that looked like a dagger, sea shells, some photos of him and his family and an unopened letter?

Frowning a little Apollyon looked at the strange letter with his name shakily written on it. He strained to remember where on earth he had gotten the letter from and why he hadn’t opened it. Cautiously he peeled open the envelope and took out two pieces of paper. One piece of paper contained the deed to his grandfather’s old farm, Hellfire Farm.

Dramatic name aside, Hellfire farm was a place Apollyon didn’t think he would ever see again. His earliest memories were of that place with him mum and grandpa. The old man died too soon. Way too soon. Apollyon had only been seven at the time and didn’t understand why his grandpa wouldn’t wake up or why he was put in a box in the ground.

He quickly read over the letter that informed him that he indeed was being given Hellfire Farm. His grandpa’s pride and joy. Apollyon could feel his chest tightening again as ugly fat tears rolled down his face and hit the letter, smearing a little of the ink, and he didn’t know why. It wasn’t panic he knew that for sure. Maybe it was relief? Maybe his body was getting flooded was adrenaline and dopamine or something? He had no idea.

He wipes his eyes dry and turned the letter over, there was a phone number for someone called Lewis. His grandpa also scribbled down that he would need to call them to set up moving into the farm. All his happy childhood memories came flooding back; picking wild flowers with his mum, learning how to fish with grandpa, running around on autumn leaves, making snow monsters in the winder, and spending all day in the sun.

Screw Joja. Screw them and their fucked up system of mentally destroying and subjugating everyone they employed. Apollyon was going to escape that poison well. He hardly had anything to his name, his job was deliberately soul sucking, and the place he was living in was falling apart. He had nothing in Zuzu city. He could start over. He had a decent amount of gold stored away, kind of. Not really. No. Five hundred gold was pretty awful, but he could make it. He was going to make it.

Goodbye Zuzu city. Hello Stardew Valley.


	2. Settling in

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The majority of this chapter is just setting up the farm and establishing a few friend relationships. Hope you all enjoy it. I'd appreciate the feedback.

Things had gone surprisingly smooth for Apollyon’s transition to Stardew Valley. He had emailed his resignation letter, spicing it up a little with a little lie about a terminally ill relative he needed to care for asap so he wouldn’t be in on Monday. He had also called this Lewis person and explained his situation about finding the deed to Hellfire Farm and how he was planning to move in the next few days.

Lewis was ecstatic to hear that someone was going to make use of the farm once again, and a relative no less. He had informed Apollyon which bus to get and that a woman named Robin would meet him at the bus stop.

So there he was, backpack clutched to his chest as he sat anxiously on the 7:20 bus to Stardew Valley. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen so much green and blue. Everything in Zuzu was very grey and muted colours. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the bus pulled up at his stop and announced their arrival in Pelican Town.

Apollyon quickly scrambled off the bus, almost tripping over himself as he did so. The ground was hard an uneven beneath his feet, but he didn’t care. Everything felt so fresh and alive. So different from the city. He loved it.

As he quickly became overwhelmed once by the greenery around him he noticed the redheaded woman standing in front of him. “Hey there. You must be Apollyon, right?”

“Yeah, and you’re Robin?”

Robin smiled brightly at him, a genuine smile that wasn’t forced. It unsettled him a little. He was still too used to the fake corporate grins on the Joja zombies. “That’s right. I’m the local carpenter. Mayor Lewis asked me to show you to your new home.”

Apollyon smiled at her, hoping it wasn’t as forced as it felt, and followed her down the dirt path to Hellfire farm. Along the way Robin happily talked about how excited everyone was to meet the new farmer and how the farm had fallen into disrepair. Once he actually saw the farm he couldn’t say she was lying; the whole place was covered with rocks and branches and trees and weeds. Sadly, not the fun kind of weed. It would take a while but he was going to fix this place up.

Suddenly an old man walked out of the farm house to greet them. As it turns out this was Mayor Lewis. He definitely looked old enough for him to be a man that his grandpa would have known back in the day. He quickly explained a few things to Apollyon, where to put his crops, that he should fix things up, and that Robin was going to try and sell him house upgrades. Whatever that meant.

“-And that’s everything.” Said Lewis with a smile. “You think you got a handle on everything?”

Apollyon smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I think so. Thanks for everything Mayor and Miss Robin.”

The two adults looked mildly amused by the way he had addressed them. “It’s okay Apollyon.” Said Lewis. “You can just call us by our names.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Feel free to explore around town and get to know everyone.” Said Lewis. “I’m sure you’ll be settling down and making friends in no time.”

Robin nodded in agreement. “Yeah, stop by my shop sometime too, it’s a little way off from the village up in the mountains. There’s a shortcut through the back of your farm. People have used it quite a lot over the years since this place hasn’t really been used… But I’m sure no one’s going to cut through here anymore since everyone knows about the new farmer.”

Apollyon nodded a little, very thankful for the help. Once the two people had left he took some time exploring the interior of the house, more like a cabin really. But it was just how he remembered it from his childhood somewhat. There was a table and chair, bed, TV, little round carpet, a fireplace and some spooky looking wall hangings on the wall. It made him smile a little to see the place still looked relatively the same. 

However there was still no indoor plumbing, so it meant it was back to boiling water and digging out an outdoor toilet for himself. Not the worst thing in the world but he would need to fix this soon. He then realized he didn’t have a shovel, just a hoe. Not very good for digging a hole.

Despite his lack of proper digging equipment, Apollyon was happy. He sat down on the bed, surprised to find it seemed to be a new mattress. This was already a million times better than his old place. He couldn’t stop the giddy feeling that was swirling around deep within his chest every second he existed within that cabin. It felt good, it felt right. He was at home.

He spent the rest of the day cleaning and planting some parsnip crops that Lewis had left for him. He hardly noticed when the sun started to go down, but when it did he quickly made his way back inside and went to bed. Today had been amazing. He’d started the life of a farmer. He could already list all the animals he was going to get off in his mind; chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, goats rabbits, and whatever else he could get his hands on. But this was going to take lots of gold. He was going to need to plant a lot more crops. 

***

The next day, bright and early Apollyon got up and watered his seeds. Despite his own personal reservations he decided he was going to be different. He wasn’t going to be closed off from the rest of the world this time. Today he was going to go out and meet the town. Being the outsider he had to try and intergrade himself into this community. If he was an asshole no one would want to buy his vegetables and he would be royally screwed.

He took a few moments to psych himself up. He needed to be pleasant and smile and make an effort not to have resting bitch face all the time. Apollyon didn’t trust himself to not make an enemy for life on his first human interaction of the day, so he decided to use the shortcut and see if he could find Robin’s home.

Thankfully the shortcut wasn’t a lie and he easily found her house. He was very impressed with the building and wondered if Robin went and built it herself. She was the town carpenter after all. Cautiously, Apollyon knocked on the front door and went inside. To his relief Robin was in fact there and standing behind a counter no less. It looked like she had converted the front room of her house into a store front.

“Hey there Apollyon. Good to see you. Need anything built?” She was still positively beaming with the same genuine smile that rattled him earlier.

He smiled sheepishly at her in a vain attempt to compose himself. “I just came by to say hello. Lewis said I should go around and meet everyone.”

“Met anyone yet?”

“Um, no… You’re my first stop.”

She grinned and clapped her hands together. “Aw thank you. It’s so nice that you thought of me and my family. Want some coffee?”

“Oh um, that would be nice. Thank you.” He followed Robin to the kitchen, surprised to see a man there washing and putting away his own coffee mug.

“Demetrius,” said Robin. “This is the new farmer, Apollyon. Apollyon, his is my husband, Demetrius.”

The man smiled at Apollyon and shook his hand. He had a very firm grip, and Apollyon couldn’t tell if he was just naturally strong or just one of those guys that had to out masculine every other guy they met. “Well it’s good to meet you. Robin was very excited to tell us all about you. Have you met our daughter yet? You probably passed her on your way up here.”

“Um, no sir, I took the shortcut and came straight here.”

“Oh, well I’m sure you’ll meet her soon. I need to get to work. I’ll see you later love.” He kissed Robin’s cheek and sidestepped past Apollyon. “Hopefully we’ll see you around more.”

Apollyon nodded a little and sat at the kitchen table while Robin got him his coffee. He knew that he’d technically only just met one new person today but he felt socially drained already. Which sucked since it wasn’t even midday yet.

Robin seemed to tune into his discomfort as she gave him his drink. “Not a very social person?”

“No, I like to keep to myself… Didn’t really hang out with anyone much in Zuzu city.” He sipped his coffee, enjoying the strong bitter taste. “Never really hung out with anyone in general really…”

“You remind me of my son.”

“Oh, you two have a son too?”

She nodded. “Oh yes. Sebastian, he was from my first marriage. Things didn’t pan out to well between us and well… I’d like to think things are better now for our family as a whole.”

Apollyon nodded. “So does this mean your daughter is your step daughter?”

“No, Maru is mine and Demetrius’s child. Demetrius is Sebastian’s stepfather.” She pursed her lips together for a moment. The men in her life seemed to cause her some form of trouble. “Anyway, I know moving to a new place can be overwhelming at times but you’ll pull through it. Okay?”

“… Okay.” It was nice to know that someone as bright as Robin seemed to be supporting him. He finished his coffee and set about meeting as many people as he possibly could around Pelican Town. Also he needed to find a shop that sold seeds.

Once he made his way down the mountain he managed to find the general store and said hello to the few people there. He met the store’s owner, Pierre and his wife Caroline. They too seemed to be all smiles and cheer like the Robin and Demetrius so he had to smile along with them. It just seemed so weird to him He didn’t understand how people could be so happy. It was probably something in the air.

After he’d picked up some seeds he managed to meet a few more villagers; Penny and her class of two at the library, Clint in his blacksmith shop, Alex and his grandparents, and finally Gus, Emily, and Pam at the Stardrop Saloon in the mid afternoon. That wasn’t all of them but that was more than enough social interaction for him for one day. Willingly talking and exploring the town was not fun for him. It was also so damn stressful smiling and being all cheerful with everyone he came across. He’d kill to just talk shit and get drunk with someone miserable. Something he never thought possible.

He sat on a stool at the bar and rested his head against the freshly polished wood of said bar, sighing heavily. Emily laughed a little as she cleaned a few glasses, holding them up to the light to check for imperfections. “You doing alright Polly?”

Apollyon groaned a little. “That’s not my name…” Emily reminded him of June. He wanted to be all snarky because he couldn’t be bothered to be nice, but he couldn’t. Not if he cared about being part of the community. Everyone seemed to like her well enough.

“Ah, sorry. But are you doing okay? Coming here is probably a big transition for you. You came from Zuzu city, right? What did you do there?”

Apollyon lifted his head off the table and sighed again. “I did… I used to work for Joja corporation… Spread sheet stuff mostly so yeah. Not used to working on a farm or with people…”

Emily nodded knowingly, as if just mentioning that dreaded blue company. “Ah, well I’m sure you’ll be growing lots of things in no time. The soil there is good. How about a drink on the house? Beer or ale?”

“Beer’s good.” Apollyon wasn’t the kind of guy to go drinking a lot, but a free beer was a free beer. He was halfway through drinking when the door of the saloon swung open and a rather tired looking man walked in. 

Emily looked ecstatic and waved at him. “Shane! Have you met the new farmer yet?”

Shane glanced over at Apollyon and nodded a little. “Hey. Beer me Emily.” The second Shane got his beer he moved to over near the fireplace to drink in peace. For the first time since Apollyon got here he felt a connection with someone. Even if it was because he seemed completely dismissive of his entire existence. This guy wasn’t smiling or faking interest in him. He had found the grumpy old man he could drink and talk shit with. 

“…” He moved over to Shane. “Hey, so I’m Apollyon. Nice to meet you Shane.” Moving closer he noticed Shame was wearing a Joja corporation jacket. Another poor unfortunate soul sucked into the Joja machine. They would get along well.

“What do you want?”

Maybe it was because he was just too used to people acting like assholes up in Zuzu but Apollyon rather liked Shane already. “Want to bitch and complain about the fucked up nonsense that is Joja? I have enough gold to buy us both a beer, or you two if you feel like it.”

Shane gave Apollyon a critical look, seeming to size him up a little. “… Alright.”

***

The next few days went by rather smoothly for Apollyon. He checked his parsnips every day, bought some more crop seeds and planted those too, explored more of the town and spent most of his evenings in the Stardrop Saloon. He was quickly becoming friends with Emily and Shane. He originally thought that Emily was going to be a pain in his ass, but no, she was just genuinely a nice woman. Shane was still just as grumpy as ever, but he was slowly warming up to Apollyon.

Everyone in town seemed to be relatively nice and cheerful. Some of his more noticeable encounters happened when Sam almost ran him over with his skateboard, Haley said his clothes were all dirty and kind of gross, and Linus scaring the heck out of him when he saw the strange mountain man foraging for leeks and horseradish near his tent. He felt like he had met just about everyone in town by now.

On Friday Apollyon got up and happily stepped outside, assuming that he was going to see another bright sunny day, and was immediately met with a Spring storm. Almost as quickly as he had opened the door he closed it. There didn’t seem to be much point in going out today if it was just going to rain.

He sat down on his bed and started to go through his phone. He should probably call his mum and see if she was going to pick up this time. He hadn’t told her he had moved back to the farm. He quickly hit the call button and waited to see he was going to get a voice mail again.

Much to his surprise he didn’t. “Hey baby bean,” she almost cooed. “It’s been a while since we’ve talked.”

He smiled a little. “Yeah mum, and I’m not a baby anymore. I’m almost twenty five… So I quit my job at Joja…”

“Oh, finally got your head screwed on right and gonna join the family business?”

“Mum, we both know that I am dangerously under qualified for that, and I’m pretty sure no one I’d work with would respect me enough to make sure I didn’t accidently kill myself.” She meant well, but Apollyon knew she couldn’t make his problems go away.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself dear. You’ll do fine. How long until they kick your jobless ass out of that apartment?”

“Um… I actually already have a new place.”

“Really? Where?”

“… Grandpa left me the farm.”

“Oh…” She didn’t sound too pleased.

“I’m doing alright I swear. Everyone here is really nice. I’ve practically met everyone and I’m not just working to get by… It’s almost been a while and things have been going really well…”

“Oh honey I’m glad things are working out for you,” she said in an almost overly concerned tone. “But like you just said, it’s only been what? A day? Two days? A week? … And you and nature… You two don’t really get along. Please be careful baby bean. We moved to the city for a reason.”

“I know you’ve said that whatever energy or aura I have attracts bad things towards me, but I’m okay… Really.” His mother had always been deep into magic and spiritualist things. She had told him that Stardew Valley was formed on a crack where both the Yoba plane and the Void converge. He had never been sure if he really believed her or not.

“And you know what will happen if one of these spirits senses your spiritual energy and feels threatened? You might be able to fool them in the city surrounded by people but out in the country… Remember baby bean, claws out and slash at the fleshy bits, but there is no shame in running away to fight another day. Survival is reason enough to keep on living.”

“… I know mum. I love you.”

“I love you too baby bean. I’ll send you a house warming gift soon.” She hung up. Presumably to start some crystal protection charm for him or something.

He knew that she loved him and didn’t mean to sound condescending or rude, but when she talked about his energy or aura it was always in a negative light. His energy was always negative and is aura was always black. He didn’t understand any of it but that apparently meant he was living a doomed existence or something. He didn’t want to dwell on it too much.

To take his mind off of the unfortunate accident that was his life he decided to go for a walk in the rain. Knowing himself he was going to dwell on this weather he wanted to or not. His feet ended up taking him down to the beach. He walked along the rickety doc and stood with the tips of his shoes just over the edge.

He looked up at the sky into a sea of grey and black. Even here it could be just as depressing as the city. Was he getting along with people now? Was he enjoying himself a lot more than he was in the city? Yes. But no matter where he went there was always going to be one thing that was the same. Him. He was never going to change. Not really.

The longer he stared up at the clouds the more they parts where the clouds overlapped started to look like cracks to him. Just like the ones in the ceiling of his old apartment. Before he could stop himself a sob managed to claw its way out of his throat. He knew he was stupid for acting like this. Everything was going good for him. 

Everything was fine. He should be happy, but he wasn’t. He was still miserable. He was cold and soaked and miserable and couldn’t stop the ugly, fat tears from rolling down his face as he cried out into the sea.


	3. Embarrassing oneself

Today was Friday, which meant one thing for Sebastian; heading down to the saloon to beat Sam at pool that night. It also happened to be raining which meant he was going to head down to the beach to stare out at the sea. An enjoyable past time for him since it meant pretty much no one would be outside.

It was about nine when Sebastian pulled himself out of bed and into the kitchen. He needed his caffeine if he was going to function. He wasn’t bogged down with work at the moment so he could afford to take the whole day off.

He sat in the kitchen and drank his coffee, wondering if he should let Sam win a game of pool for once. But his own thoughts were interrupted when Maru walked in and poured herself an extra-large glass of orange juice and sat across from him, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“Oh man… I think I fried my third motherboard… I’m gonna be broke at this rate.” Said Maru. Sebastian grunted in response. He didn’t care too much for his half-sister’s attempts at small talk. Either she didn’t get the hint or just decided to ignore him. “Anyway… Have you met the new farmer yet?”

He had recalled that his mum had mentioned showing someone the old Hellfire Farm earlier, but didn’t really make much of it. Apparently they stopped over a few times too. Every time he had been in his room and didn’t bother to go out to see who was visiting. He’s just assumed it was Marnie asking for help with her chicken coops or something. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

“No. Too busy with my own work to meet any new people. I’ll see them around sometime anyway. This isn’t a huge place.”

“Well that’s true.” She drank some of her juice and hummed thoughtfully. “He’s really nice. He came into the clinic the other day and introduced himself to me and Harvey. He was so shy but you could tell he was putting in the effort to get to know everyone.”

“You talking about Apollyon?” Asked Robin as she walked into the kitchen. “Morning Sebby. Heading down to the docks again?”

“Yeah. I’ll be at the saloon later tonight too.”

Maru smiled a little at that, probably assuming that Sebastian was going to beat Sam at pool again. “Anyway, Sebastian hasn’t met Apollyon yet.”

Their mother looked shocked for a second but ended up shaking her head. “Well you do spend pretty much all of your time inside… Hopefully he’ll be at the saloon tonight. Marnie’s mentioned that he’s dropped by her ranch a few times to see Shane, so if Shane’s at the saloon so will Apollyon.”

As the two women continued to talk Sebastian managed to slip away and exit the house without being noticed. He didn’t care about the new farmer. Just a new person that would probably go right ahead and ignore him. No point getting to know him. He pushed the thoughts of the farmer out of his mind as he walked down the cobblestone pavement of the town. It was nice and quiet when it rained heavily like this. 

He was about to walk across the bridge leading down to the beach when he spotted a rather large frog right in the middle of said bridge. After quickly glancing around to make sure there was no one around at all, Sebastian slowly crouched down and approached the green and brown spotted amphibian. By the time it realized Sebastian was behind them it was too late, Sebastian grabbed hold of the slimy boy and held it firmly in his hands.

“Got you.” He muttered happily as it wriggled and went ribbit in his hands at the indignity of being manhandled. Sebastian smiled and gave the frog a few pats before putting it back on the town side of the bridge. But the second he let the frog go the wind picked up from the South, carrying with it the sound of a hideous wail. The sound was so strange and unnatural it even made the frog misjudge its jump and land on its back before falling into the river. 

Curious as to what on earth that sound was, Sebastian made his way down to the beach. He saw some black humanoid figure wailing at the end of the docks. For a fleeting moment he wondered if it was a Shadow Brute out from hiding. But then again those were just stories. He slowly approached the person coming within about a few feet of them before they noticed Sebastian was there and turned around.

They looked like a drowned rat, completely drenched from head to toe in dark clothes that just appeared black after getting soaked so badly. How long had he been standing out here for? His hair clung around his eyes, red and kind of puffy from crying. Was this guy the new farmer?

The man quickly rubbed his eyes and put on a small smile, even if it looked kind of forced. Not surprised since he was caught crying. “Um… hey?” He muttered. “Um, I don’t think we’ve met yet. I’m Apollyon. I guess you’re Sebastian?”

“Um yeah…” Wow this was very awkward. There was nothing Sebastian wanted more than for this to be over with. Luckily for him Apollyon seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“Well, I’m sure you didn’t want to come down here and talk to some random stranger. I’ll let you get on with what you’re doing.” He walked past Sebastian, lightly brushing his knuckles against his own. Apollyon’s skin was ice cold and left his own skin tingling a little in the process. The new farmer was weird.

***

Later that night at the saloon Sebastian was retelling his weird encounter with Abigail and Sam. Sebastian thought everything was kind of weird about their encounter his friends however…

“Whale songs,” said Sam. “He was practicing whale songs.”

Abigail rolled her eyes. “Get real Sam. He was practicing some Blue whaleanese. Wait, did it sound more like wooooOOOOoooOOOooorrrrr, or more like rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIiiiimmmooooRRRR?”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Ah yeas, very important. The pitch is a dead giveaway. One octave can mean the difference between a blue whale saying hello and an orca telling you your mum has been harpooned.”

Abigail snickered at that comment and Sebastian’s sour expression. “Come on, all that can be easily explained. Firstly it’s cold as fuck when it rains and you have no idea how long he was out there. Secondly he was probably just freaking out about moving out here and needed to have a cry and scream about it. I heard him talking to my dad the other day and he said he used to work for Joja and just hates them.”

At the mention of Joja Sam cringed. “Okay yeah, if he worked for Joja he probably needed to let out a scream. I just work there part time and I feel like I need to go home and cry at least once a month. That place sucks the life out of you.”

Sebastian relented a little at his friends words. Things were weird, but they weren’t insanely weird. He was just overthinking things. “Whatever. Whose turn is it to get a round of drinks?”

“That would be I.” Said Abigail as she jumped off the couch and made her way to the bar. Once she was out of earshot Sam couldn’t help but grin at Sebastian.

Sebastian knew that look. He did not like that look. “… What are you thinking Samson?”

“Dude, do you have a crush on the new guy?”

“… Yeah so I am going to hit that ball with the cue and I’ll make it hit the rim, jump, and smash you in the face.” Just for a little added threat he leaned over the pool table and pretended to line up the shot.

“Not my face!” Whined Sam as he tried to cover his face and anything else Sebastian might try and hit. “All I have it my looks!”

“Pretty much.”

“Okay rude. But I was just teasing you. Though you do tend to imprint on things you find weird like a duckling… I think I heard your mum say that once. Which is how we became such good friends.”

“Do I have to shove this pool cue up your nose?”

***

After a rather embarrassing meeting with Sebastian, marking off the last person he had to meet. He just really wished he hadn’t been caught crying out in the middle of the rain like that. He was going to have to refrain from doing that out in public and just do it in the safety of his room like he would usually do in his old apartment. When he got home he peeled off his wet clothes and dried himself by the fire as best he could before putting on a fresh clean set and heading to the saloon.

Getting there he grabbed two beers and headed over to Shane. When the man tried to take one from Apollyon, he scolded him and quickly gulped down the first one before starting on his second one. Shane seemed to find this very amusing.

“What’s got you so worked up?” He asked with a slight smirk.

“The forced realization of my complete and utter insignificance in the world at large and reminding myself that no matter where I go or what I do I am just a complete piece of trash that should be buried in the Zuzu city dump.”

“… Shit, way to get real there all of a sudden. I’m too sober to talk about this.”

“Same.” As Apollyon quickly started on his second beer he noticed Abigail walked out from the arcade to grab a few drinks from Emily. He glanced over that way to see Sebastian and Sam near the pool table. It kind of looked like Sebastian was threatening the blond.

“Forget it.” Muttered Shane. “Those three hog the pool table every Friday night.”

“Huh, alright… Be back in a bit, don’t stumble home without me.”

“Yes mum.”

Apollyon chuckled and made his way over to Abigail. They’d met when he had gone to get some more seeds only to realize that the general store was closed on Wednesdays. Which sucked but everyone needed a day off at some point. Abigail was mildly disappointed that she couldn’t explore around the farm anymore, but she seemed to warm up to him a little when he gave her a dandelion.

Even though he was tired he still put on a smile and hoped it didn’t look too fake “Hey there Abby.” 

She looked over at him and smiled. “Hey there yourself. What’s up?”

“Just seeing if you need any help with your drinks.”

She thought about it for a moment and handed him a tall glass of something. He hadn’t ordered this before. “You got Seb’s drink.” She walked back to her friends with Apollyon following. “Yo, one rum and Joja cola, more like Joja cola with a shot of rum, and a house cider for Seb.”

Apollyon handed Sebastian his drink. He seemed to hesitate for a little but took it anyway. He lightly touched Apollyon’s hand and frowned a little. “Your hand’s freezing.”

“I have very bad circulation in my hands and feet.” Said Apollyon as he looked down at the pool table. “So who’s winning?”

Sam groaned. “Sebastian, again…”

Apollyon chuckled a little and sat on the couch with Abigail and let the boys continue their game. After watching the two boys for a while he noticed that he was being watched himself by the purple haired girl next to him. “… Want a parsnip? They’ll be ready to harvest tomorrow.”

Abigail immediately pulled a disgusted face. “Ew, no. Never give me vegetables or I’ll shove it up your ass.”

“Fair enough.”

“Just wondering why you were practicing whale songs on the beach today.”

Now he just wanted to get up and leave. This was all just too embarrassing for him to have to explain. He was now really missing the city. He’d have to bend the truth just a little bit. “Ah, well you see I called my mum this morning and she wasn’t too happy with me moving back to Hellfire Farm. We have a bit of strained relationship.”

“Is she a bitch?”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that notion. “Quite the opposite, my mum is one of the nicest people around. She just… She’s into crystals and aura readings and spirit energy. Depending on who you ask she could be considered a medium, witch, or druid… I think I heard someone call her sorceress once. Anyway, the point is she’s always been able to read my aura and spirit energy. You know what she always sees? Black and negative energy.” 

Abigail didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. “Um… That’s interesting?”

Apollyon shrugged. “I know it’s weird. But it can’t be helped really. Things just turned out the way they did… It’s kind of depressing that my mum’s only been able to see nothing but pain for me when she does my aura readings but it’s okay. I have a feeling she’s doing a little bit of projecting onto me or something like that. But I still love her. She pulled me into this world.”

“That’s one way of putting it.” She stirred her drink around with the straw and hummed a little to herself. “So, do you have a better relationship with your dad?”

“I only have a step-dad and to be honest… When it came to looking after me it was only just so I wouldn’t get taken away by child services.”

“… Rough.”

Apollyon chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I tend to overshare when I have a fair bit to drink. I’m used to either drinking a whole bottle by myself and passing out or nursing a glass for a few hours… I should go home before I do something stupid, like revel my sex life.”

“… Boys or girls?”

He chuckled and lightly nudged her arm. “I don’t kiss and tell. I’m gonna see if Shane’s ready to head off.” He walked over to Sebastian and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, about earlier today…”

“Forget about it.” Muttered the raven haired man. 

Apollyon shook his head and reached into his pocket, taking out a sizable chunk of quartz. “Nah, I embarrassed myself like a dumbass. I mean really, you thought I was doing whale impersonations? Clearly I was speaking narwhal.” He turned the rock around in his hand a little, momentarily second guessing himself. “Anyway, I found this while I was breaking rocks on my farm the other day. Thought you might like it. I cleaned and shined it soooo later.” He put the stone on the pool table and wandered over to Shane.

Emily looked mildly relieved that Apollyon was walking back. “Hey there you are. I was wondering where you wandered off to.” She reached over the bar and gently shook Shane. “Come on big boy time for you to head home.”

Shane hardly complained as he pulled himself to his feet and followed Apollyon out. It wasn’t that big a deal to walk back to his place via Marine’s ranch once in a while. He recently found another path that lead from his farm right by Marine’s place, and it was kind of nice to walk by Cindersap forest at night.

“What were you talking to those guys about anyway?” Asked Shane.

Apollyon chuckled a little and shrugged. “Whale songs mostly. You getting jealous of me hanging around other people?”

“Piss off.” He shoved Apollyon and walked back into his own home.

Apollyon couldn’t help but laugh at that. He felt all over the place today with his emotions. One second he was happy and then he was sad. One of the drawbacks of not working in a soul sucking establishment like Joja. He was learning how to be human and have feelings again. It was scary in a good way.

He sighed a little and made his way back onto his farm. He was about halfway there when he heard a tiny screech followed by a furious flapping of wings. Apollyon looked up just in time to get his face side swiped by a very small angry bat. He quickly bolted back inside when the bat swooped him again and slammed the door right on its face. Now he had to worry about tiny flying bastards.


	4. Mining gone wrong

All Apollyon did was go over to Emily’s place to give her an apricot as a thanks for being so cool towards him over the past few days, he had heard friends give each other random gifts from time to time. But somehow he ended up being used as a model while Emily draped fabric over his body and pinned it in place.

“Um… So what are you making?” He asked.

“Just seeing how this new pattern looks on a person,” she said as she grabbed a few more pins. “To be fair I would normally ask Haley to help me but this is meant to be for a man and well… I needed someone with a flat chest.”

“Fair enough.” Apollyon continued to stand still, not wanting to get stabbed by mistake.

“Yeah… do you have any sheep on your farm? I’d love to get some wool.”

“Unfortunately I don’t have any sheep at the moment. But I’ll keep you in mind once I get one.”

“Thanks Apollyon. You are the best.” She stood back and smiled at him, taking in the clothing design and deeming it to be suitable. “Nice.” Emily took a photo with Haley’s borrowed camera and started to remove the pattern. “So what are you up to today?”

“Um, I was thinking of checking out the mines…” Truth be told the thought of going to the mines terrified him. They were cold and dark and enclosed. He had nightmares about being in those kinds of places. That was when he could remember his nightmares. 

He’d only gone up there to see if he could find any copper but instead found Marlon, leader of the Adventure’s guild. He gave him a sword and basically tasked him with slaying monsters in the caves. So now he had even more reason to fear the caves. Luckily he’d only come across slimes and monster bugs. But it was still horrifying to have a flying bug the size of a small dog dive bombing him with its pincers snapping like crazy.

Emily didn’t seem too happy that Apollyon was going into the mines. “That place is really dangerous. You shouldn’t go in there unless you really have to… But be safe. Okay? Pack lots of food and be smart about it all. Okay?”

“Yes mum.”

She grinned and poked his face. “I’m too young to be your mum silly. Drop by the saloon tonight so I know you haven’t died, if you’re heading up there now.”

“Don’t worry. I’m just going up there to get some copper then I am gone.” He reassured her. Once he was free of Emily’s shirt pattern, Apollyon made his way up the mountain to the mines.

He could feel his blood starting to run ice cold, if that was even possible. He was pretty sure his blood was made of ice water at this point. His skin was constantly cold after all. Cold. Cold. Always cold. Cold blooded? Yeah, he was cold blooded. He was a cold blooded killer. With all the murder and stabby stabby stab and what not. Okay he was pretty pathetic but he needed to hype himself up somehow.

He stood in front of the elevator and quickly made sure that he had enough torches to light his way in case things got too dark. Taking a deep breath he stepped into the elevator and went down into the depths. Truthfully he hadn’t even passed the first forty floors but he was doing his best darn it. 

He got off on the thirtieth floor and descended the ladder. He was immediately plunged into darkness. Apollyon could feel his chest tighten with anxiety as he started throwing down torches like flares. This was the darkest part of the mines yet. It was so dark and scary. He needed to save up for a glow ring. The only thing that would keep him calm at this rate.

Apollyon frantically started smashing rocks in a desperate effort to try and find a new ladder to get down. He hoped that a lower level would be brighter and he wouldn’t have to rely on his torches so much. Eventually he found a ladder and quickly escaped down it. Unfortunately this ladder seemed to be covered in a thick layer of slime and he slipped, crashing down onto the thick, slimy ground.

He groaned and rubbed his forehead. The whole place was covered in thick green slime and the disturbing squelching sound of slimes echoed all around him. Somehow he had found some kind of slime breeding ground. Realising the danger he was in, Apollyon quickly got up and attempted to climb up the ladder, but a slime smashed him hard in the back of the head, sending his face through a rung on the slime rotted ladder.

“Fuck.” He groaned as he turned to face the smile, just in time for the sentient snot ball to leap forward and slam into his guts. He dropped his sword and fell to his knees. He was completely winded at this point. A second slime managed to gloop its way over and join the first slime in beating the hell out of Apollyon. Each hit was getting stronger. Each fall was getting harder to get up from. His vision was getting darker as he became closer and closer to losing consciousness. 

The cracks were crumbling away.

***

It was about eight thirty according to Sebastian’s phone. Today had been another stressful day trying to fix some code for a client that just refused to get fixed. It didn’t help that his mum had come down and berated him for not going outside for a few days. It wasn’t his fault he was busy. He had things he needed to do if he was going to get enough gold to leave Pelican town for good.

As he finished his third cigarette of the day he checked to see how many he had left and if he needed to pick up a few more from Pierre’s shop later in the week. He might make it to Monday. By then he should have fixed the damn code. If not he’d have to get some more. 

Nights out in the mountains were rather peaceful. The only sounds were that of nature and occasionally Linus moving around his tent. It was good for when he needed to clear his head. Suddenly his peaceful evening was interrupted by the sound of something heavy and metallic crashing against something else heavy and metallic in the mines.

It made him jump and stare at the entrance way from the other side of the river. He watched in morbid curiosity was a dark shambling shape trudged out. They slowly walked over the bridge and towards them. As they got closer Sebastian was surprised and very disturbed to see it was Apollyon. He looked awfuly; clothes torn, skin cut deeply in some places, blood was dripping from his hands, he was covered in thick slime and the whites of one of his eyes had turned red. He watched in fascination as the farmer shuffled forward a few more steps before dropping his pickaxe and almost falling over.

Sebastian approached the farmer, he didn’t want them to suddenly keel over and die right in front of him. That would be a mental scar he didn’t need. “Hey, are you okay?” He asked, but Apollyon didn’t seem to hear him. So Sebastian stood in front of him and begrudgingly put his hands on Apollyon’s slime covered shoulders. “Hey, listen to me. Are you okay?”

Apollyon looked at Sebastian with a dazed look in his eyes. There wasn’t any life in those eyes. It looked like he had some kind of brain injury by the way he was swaying. He opened his mouth a little and a tidal wave of blood gushed out onto Sebastian’s hoodie and pants before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out.

“Oh fuck!” Sebastian managed to grab hold of him and stopped Apollyon from hitting his head against the ground, but now he had a very, very injured and possibly dying man on his hands. “Oh fuck… What the fuck do I…? Shit I don’t need this today!” He held on tightly to him and dragged him back to his house, practically kicking in the front door as he did so. “MARU! MEDICAL EMERGENCY!”

Within seconds the whole family was in the front room gawking at the sight of a bloody and unconscious farmer in their front room. They probably would have been even more freaked out if they could actually see how much blood was on Sebastian’s clothes.

Maru quickly jumped in and started to perform first aid with the help of Robin while Demetrius went and called Doctor Harvey. All Sebastian could really do was stand back and watch. It wasn’t like he could really do anything anyway. His body wasn’t allowing him to do anything. His feet had planted themselves into the ground and refused to move. This whole situation was fucked up.

“Sebastian!” Snapped Maru.

“Huh? What?”

“What happened?”

“Oh um, they walked out of the mines and looked like that… They were really out of it and didn’t answer me when I called out to them and when I did manage to get in front of them they like spat up a mouthful of blood and passed out.”

She nodded a little. “Okay, probably a concussion… Maybe some internal bleeding… Mum, where’s the stretcher?”

“I’ll go get it.” Robin quickly got up and rushed out of the room.

Maru sighed a little and picked up Apollyon’s hand. “What on earth happened to you?” In the light Sebastian could easily see where most of the blood had come from; Apollyon’s nails had been ripped off. Some of them were still practically attached to his fingers, but only just. It almost looked like he’d been trying to claw himself out of something. It was horrific. 

***

Apollyon blinked a few times, very surprised to see that he was looking up at the pristine white ceiling of the clinic and not the slime covered cavern he had passed out in. He felt kind of sluggish and drained. The door opened and good old doctor Harvey walked in. He looked rather shocked to see Apollyon awake, but surprise quickly replaced shock and he quickly moved to Apollyon’s side. 

“Hey doc.” Muttered Apollyon. “How long was I out for?”

“Since last night. You’re lucky the worst you had was a minor concussion. Though you did lose a tooth and all of your fingernails. You also ruptured a blood vessel in your eye so your sclera is no longer white.”

“That explains why my fingers are all bandaged up then…” Apollyon sighed a little and pulled himself into a sitting position. “Anyway, I should get going. No point in hanging around here for much longer.”

Harvey put his hand on Apollyon’s shoulder and gave him a very concerned look. “Well be that as it may I um, I have a few questions to ask you concerning your medical history. It’s interesting to say the least and I was hoping you could correct me if this information is wrong.”

An exasperated sigh left him when he heard that. “Yeah… Well what do you want to know?”

“You had pica when you were younger?”

“I was five and ate anything that people put in front of me doc. I ate so many crayons and so much paper. I ate one of my mum’s candles and an incense stick once. Don’t do that anymore.” He remembered going to the hospital specifically because he ate an incense stick.

“You’ve also had multiple concussions over your teenage years.”

“I was an angry child that got into a lot of fights. In my defence they were assholes that needed to be taught a lesson.”

“You also got hit by a bus in your senior year in high school. But you only had a sprained wrist and road rash.”

Apollyon shrugged. “Yeah well, I guess I’m just lucky. So thanks for dragging my dumb ass down here Harvey. I appreciate it.”

“Oh, I didn’t bring you down here. Maru’s parents did.”

“Really?” Now he felt bad. They probably thought he was dying.

“Yeah, when Demetrius called he said that Sebastian saw you walk out of the mines and collapse right in front of him.”

“Oh…” Once again he had made an ass of himself right in front of Sebastian. “Well I should thank them for helping me out…”

“Maru’s working today, so she’s at the front desk… Are you sure you want to leave right now?” Asked Harvey. He still seemed very concerned. “I mean you can but maybe you should stay longer?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Apollyon got up and walked to the front desk.

Maru looked just as shocked as Harvey did to see that he was up and about. “Apollyon, are you okay?”

“Just a few scrapes and stuff, but I’m okay. Thanks for helping me.”

“Don’t thank me, you should be thanking Sebastian. If he wasn’t out smoking last night no one would have found you till morning. Things could have been really bad for you if he didn’t run into you… But you did puke a lot of blood and slime onto him.”

Apollyon laughed nervously. “So that’s why Harvey brought up the pica thing… What stuff does Sebastian like?” There was no way he was going to give Sebastian another lump of quartz. He probably thought he was a complete weirdo for doing that.

Maru thought for a moment. “Well, you should avoid the mines but he likes obsidian and this stone called a frozen tear… Maybe you should stick to something like pumpkin soup or sashimi? He also likes this thing called a void egg.”

“A void egg?” He didn’t realise people normal people liked those things. Void eggs held a level foreboding about them. In the old days it was thought that they were the eggs of void creatures like the shadow brutes or Squid kids. But people now knew they were just special black chicken eggs. They were still thought of as bad luck or inedible to most people.

“Yeah I know. Kind of weird… Just don’t go into the mines again, okay?”

Apollyon nodded a little and trudged back to his farm. He wanted to do something nice for the family that had helped him so much, and he wanted to do something extra special for Sebastian. He needed to be redeemed in his eyes. It was all because of small town politeness of course. Once he got to the farm and noticed had had a dozen or so parsnips and potatoes ready for harvest he developed an idea. He might not have a kitchen yet but he sure as hell could build a fire.

Around lunchtime Apollyon found himself walking towards Robin’s house carrying a pot of parsnip and potato soup. He swore the poor red head almost had a heart attack. She probably wasn’t expecting to see him so soon.

He ignored her shock and placed the pot on the countertop. “Parsnip and potato soup. Just a little something to say thank you for what you did for me last night.”

“Oh thank you… Would you mind if we take this to the kitchen?”

“Sure.” He picked up the pot and followed Robin to the kitchen, placing the pot on the table. “I’m really sorry about what happened last night. I just had a few cuts and stuff, and yeah, one of my eyes is going to be red for a while… and it’ll take a while for my nails to grow back, but I’m fine. Really.”

“If you’re sure…” She seemed a little wary. “So what happened exactly?”

“Um, I went into the mines and accidentally ended up in some kind of slime breeding ground and they belted the heck out of me.” He nervously shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down at the floor. “Um, anyway, is Sebastian home? I heard he’s the one that dragged my dumb ass here in the first place.”

“He’s in his room, down in the basement.”

“Okay thanks. Enjoy the soup.” He quickly made his way down to the basement, politely knocking on Sebastian’s door before opening it. “Hello?”

Sebastian looked over the top of his computer, surprised to see Apollyon up and about so soon. “You’re not dead. Good.”

“Yeah…” He walked over to Sebastian, unable to look him in the face. He felt so embarrassed. “Look, thanks for what you did. I just got the hell beaten out of me by some slimes and passed out… So here.” He took a pouch of gold from his pocket and placed it on the desk. “I asked Maru what stuff you like and since I don’t have a kitchen and can’t go back into the mines I thought maybe two thousand gold would be fine.” Sebastian stared blankly at the gold pouch so Apollyon continued to ramble. “And well, I thought since I apparently barfed a bunch of blood and slime onto you, you could like get some new clothes with it or something. I really owe you one. If you ever need anything just drop by the farm and ask.”

“… Thanks.”

Once again Apollyon felt like he had screwed up. It seemed as though he was fated to make terrible first, second, and third impressions with Sebastian. “Well… I guess I’ll see you around… Thanks again… Sorry for bothering you.” On his way out he couldn’t help but notice the quartz he’d given Sebastian the previous Friday being used as a paper weight. It made him smile a little to know that it hadn’t just been thrown out.

“… You’re not bothering me.”

Apollyon glanced over at the man who was still at his computer. “Hmm?”

“Look, when we first met you were weird, really freaking weird, but Abby and Sam seem to think you’re okay so whatever… And I thought the Quartz was a nice gift… And it wasn’t your fault a bunch of slimes beat the crap out of you.”

That alleviated some of the anxiety that was dwelling deep inside Apollyon’s chest. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to work.”

Sebastian nodded a little and went back to typing away on his computer. Feeling as though he had somewhat redeemed himself in Sebastian’s eyes, Apollyon left the house and trudged back down into the town. When he was about halfway down the mountain he realised that he didn’t go to the Saloon last night. Emily was going to kill him.


	5. Auras, Junimos, and almost getting killed again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you all enjoy this chapter and leave a comment and or a kudos. It's all appreciated. Hope you all enjoy it :)

Once again Apollyon found himself at Emily’s place. She was scolding him for being an idiot and getting completely wrecked down in the mines. All he could do was hang his head in shame and agree with her. He sat on her couch as she walked around him going off about the dangers of the caves.

“It’s so dangerous down there.” She scolded. “Do you have any idea how lucky you that you just… All of this-” Emily gestured to all of him. “-was the worst thing that happened to you. Don’t go into the mines again.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t…” That was a lie. He still needed copper and he heard Clint mentioning that there were more precious ores like iron, gold, and iridium deeper in these mines and a mine out in a place called Calico Desert. He just needed a better pickaxe and a stronger sword before he tried again.

Hearing him say that Emily calmed down somewhat and happily changed the subject. “Alright. Are you all ready for the flower dance?”

“The what?” Maybe the concussion and knocked that information out of his head, but he had no idea what that was.

Emily’s eyes seemed to sparkle as she spun around in a circle. “The flower dance is one of the best festivals in Pelican Town! Every year we go down to this large open field over the other side of the Cindersap Forest and we all get together and have this big dance! All the young people in town get all dressed up and dance to bring prosperity and fertility for the year!”

“… Um, prosperity and fertility? Kind of sounds like some pagan ritual.”

“That’s how it started off as.”

“… Oh.”

Emily chuckled and continued to move and sway, like she was dancing to some unheard tune. “It’s so much fun wearing long flowing dresses and dancing with a handsome man in a bow tie. Flower crowns are always fun to make too! You might get a chance to dance with someone too!”

“Doubt it. I can’t dance and I look like I kissed a shovel at the moment.” Apollyon ran his fingers through his hair and sighed a little. “Besides if suits have to pair up with dresses I don’t think I have one that fits me.”

Her eyes seemed to light up again. “Oh so you’re gay? Transgender?”

Apollyon shrugged. “I’d say I’m pansexual. But I personally prefer my partners with smaller chests and nice butts. Apart from that I don’t really mind what my partner identifies as. As long as we like each other I never really saw what the problem was.”

Emily nodded in agreement. “Too true. So do you like anyone in town?”

“Huh? Oh I haven’t really looked. Been a little too busy with farm stuff to be interested in that kind of stuff…” He’d just gotten enough money and materials together to build a silo and needed to figure out where he was going to put his coop and barn. Robin also told him he should get a windmill so he needed to think about that too. Then there was that orchid he wanted to put in. Pierre had so many different saplings he wanted to get his hands on so badly. Farming was hard.

Emily grinned and gave him a playful nudge. “Well there are a lot of young eligible bachelors and bachelorettes in Pelican Town.”

“Like who?”

“Let’s see…” Emily began to list people off on her fingers. “Penny, Maru, Leah, Abigail, Haley and of course me.”

“Really? You included yourself when you listed off all the girls that aren’t married? Why not include Marnie too?”

“You into older women?”

“Eh, she seems nice but I don’t think she’s my type.”

“Thought as much. Anyway so with guys that; Alex, Sam, Harvey, Shane, Elliot, and Sebastian.”

Apollyon felt dead inside at the mention of Sebastian. Every interaction he had so far with the raven haired individual had resulted in some kind of personal embarrassment. “Okay…”

Suddenly Haley stepped out of her room wearing her swimsuit and carrying a towel. “I’m heading down to the beach to tan for a while.”

Emily grinned. “Awesome. Your aura looks especially good today.”

Apollyon felt like someone had poured ice water over him. “You can see people’s auras?”

Haley groaned and rolled her eyes. “She’s into all that new age junk. Call me if you really need me back here.” She happily strolled out the door leaving Apollyon and Emily alone.

He was nervous now. In retrospect he felt dumb for not realising that all those crystals and weird music she listened to was not just because she felt like it, but had some kind of spiritual meaning behind it. Emily seemed to sense his unease and smiled softly at him.

“You’ve had your aura read before then?” She asked. “Heard someone say something nasty about it because it’s as black as night?”

“… Maybe.” He fidgeted nervously with the hem of his shirt. “I just… I don’t know how to change my aura or if it’s possible… People who tend to be more magically inclined tend to look upon me with disgust and avoid me. Why didn’t you?”

“Because you’re a good person.” She said in such a matter of fact tone it threw Apollyon for a loop. “Look, many people tend to radiate different kinds of auras and they all fluctuate all the time. Most people tend to stick to one main colour though.” Emily thought hard for a moment. “Hmm, take Haley for example. She usually has a gold aura. People with those kinds of auras tend to be the more artistic and beautiful people of the world, but sometimes it will get all kind of murky pink because she’s kind of immature. Today her aura is very golden.”

“… And what about black auras? What do people say about that?”

Emily thought for a moment. “Well black auras don’t actually exist.” She tilted her head to the side and tapped her fingers against her chin. “… You know, the more I look at you the more I think it’s actually just dark purple. Like really dark purple. Almost black but not.”

Apollyon fidgeted nervously. “So what does that mean?”

She leaned over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “It means you’re a good person. Your aura might have just been dark because you closed yourself off from people. I am assuming.” Emily patted his back and walked off to the kitchen. “Well I should probably get back to getting that shirt all fixed up, and you should get back to farming. I’ll be at the saloon tonight if you want to talk.”

Apollyon thanked her and left her home. He was going to go and see Robin to check how much it was going to cost for him to have a silo built. As he passed the old run down community centre he couldn’t help but notice Lewis standing outside it looking rather dejected.

“… Something wrong Mr Mayor?”

Lewis sighed a little. “What an eyesore… This is the Pelican Town Community Centre, or what’s left of it. Once bustling with activity it’s now been left to rot… It’s shameful.” He walked up to the door and unlocked it. “You know, Joja has been hounding me to sell this to them so they can turn it into a warehouse.”

Apollyon thought he was going to have a heart attack. “What? Joja? Here? In Pelican Town?”

The older man gave him a very confused look and pointed to a large square building just off in the distance. “Did you not see the Jojamart? It’s been here for a few months now. Shane and Sam work there you know.”

“… My mind seems to have blocked out anything and everything Joja related unless it involved bad mouthing them.”

Lewis chuckled at that. “You’re a good kid Apollyon. I just… there’s just something stopping me from selling this old place… I guess old timers like me get attached to relics of the past… Ah well. If anyone else buys a Joja Co. Membership I’m just going to go ahead and sell it.”

“What? No way!” Apollyon was mortified. “I came here to be rid of all things Joja! That place sucks out your damn soul! I will never ever in a million years get a Joja Co. Membership!” Apollyon’s mind was set, he was going to rebuild the town centre with his own two hands if it meant Joja would have to crawl back to the vile pit it came from. He would need a lot of wood, untold amounts of hard wood, about a thousand stone, several bars of copper, iron, and gold, and a metric fuck-ton of gold.

While he was figuring out how to do this he almost didn’t notice Lewis walk into said Community Centre. Apollyon quickly followed him inside and looked around. The place was completely trashed; boarded up windows, holes in the walls, missing floorboards, water damage, and broken glass. He was going to need two metric fuck-tons of gold.

He notice off on the far left, next to the fireplace, there was a weird little hut just standing there. The Mayor noticed it too and frowned a little. “Huh, I guess Vincent and Jas must’ve been playing in here… This place is even more dilapidated than I remember…”

“Yeah, this place is in pretty bad sh- AH!” Just next to the hut a small green apple looking creature suddenly popped into existence. It waved its little stick arm enthusiastically at Apollyon before popping back out of existence.

Lewis frowned a little and quickly looked back over to the hut finding nothing there. “What’s the matter? Are you still a little out of it? Harvey did say you weren’t looking your best when you left the other day.” 

“No I…” Apollyon walked over to the hut and looked behind it. The apple creature was gone. “I thought I saw something…”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this place was full of rats.” Suddenly the apple thing popped back into existence, seemingly to taunt Apollyon by doing a little dance before vanishing again seconds before Lewis could see it. He had a very concerned look on his face, probably because he saw Apollyon looking at something over his shoulder. “You’re worrying me, Apollyon.”

“… I think I should go and lie down for a bit.”

“That might be for the best… I think I’ll head home now. I need to get some lunch.” He took a few steps towards the door before turning around. “Hey, how about I keep this place unlocked from now on? Maybe you can catch that rat if you have some spare time?”

“Um… sure…” When the Mayor was gone Apollyon couldn’t help but feel a very strange and eerie presence looming over him. There was something not right and downright disturbing in the place. A small gust of wind through one of the building’s many holes blew some paper across the floor. An odd piece of golden parchment got caught on his foot and he picked it up. It seemed to be written in code or was just scribbles. He would have investigated the matter further but a feeling of impending dread was quickly taking him over. All he could see were cracks.

He raced outside as fast as he could, tripping and face planting on the grass. He was okay. The cracks weren’t real. He was okay. They weren’t real, those little apple bastards. He had just hit his head really hard and was in the middle of having an aneurism or a seizure. There was no way he just saw a Junimo, and there was no way the little fucker taunted him with a little dance. Apollyon quickly decided that today was over and promptly went home to sleep and forget about everything that just happened, but he was still going to rebuild the community centre.

The next day Apollyon started his morning by watching TV. The Queen of Sauce cooking show was playing so he spent a little time learning how to cook himself some tasty stir-fry. If only he had a kitchen to do so. Robin had told him that she could upgrade his house so he could have a proper kitchen and more living space, but it cost so much gold. 

He lamented over the fact he was poorer than dirt as he tended to his farming duties of watering his parsnips, potatoes and beans. Some day he would have a kitchen and cook the best vegetable soup and make the best mashed potatoes. As he put his watering can away in his farming supply chest he noticed a bit of paper sticking out of his letter box.

Apollyon grabbed the letter, assuming it was from Harvey asking him to come in for a check-up or something but no. It was from a M. Rasmodius, Wizard. Somehow he knew that he had been poking around the community centre and wanted him to come to his tower in Cindersap Forest to talk about the rat problem. That wasn’t suspicious at all.

Mildly concerned for his safety, Apollyon decided to take his axe with him as he ventured down to the Wizard’s tower. He had spotted it before on his many trips down to the forest to search for wild flowers and vegetables to sell but never bothered to go up to it.

Entering the tower, Apollyon was greeted by a bearded man with wild purple hair wearing a black robe and hat. He seemed to be standing over some kind of summoning circle in front of his fire place chanting something quietly to himself.

Once Apollyon closed the door the Wizard stopped chanting and looked up at him. “Ah… Come in.” He walked over to Apollyon and bowed with a flourish. “I am Rasmodius… Seeker of the arcane truths. Mediary between physical and ethereal. Master of the seven elementals. Keeper of the sacred cha- … you get the point.”

“Um yeah. I’m Apollyon. Farmer of vegetables.”

“Ah yes Apollyon. The one whose arrival I have long foreseen… Though I must ask you to forgive me for what I am about to do, but I must protect the valley.” 

Before Apollyon could react the Wizard waved his arm in front of him and muttered an incantation. The moment the last sound left his lips it felt like stakes were being driven through his body as he was forcibly pinned to the ground. Through the shock Apollyon let out a pained whimper. It felt like sharpened stakes had been driven through most of the joints in his arms and legs.

“W-why?”

The Wizard sighed a little, looking almost annoyed at this point. “I was really hoping for a different outcome. I was hoping you weren’t… But I guess that really doesn’t matter. You being this… This thing explains the sudden behaviour displayed by the Junimos. I will make this quick.” 

“W-why? What did I do?” Apollyon was panicking. Was the Wizard going to kill him? He didn’t understand what was happening to him.

He raised his hand and started to utter another incantation when suddenly the same green Junimo popped into existence between Apollyon and the Wizard. It raised its little stick arms up and started to dance around making a series of high pitched sounds that sounded rather panicked in nature.

The little creatures supposed pleas seemed to quell the Wizard’s need to end Apollyon. “Are you sure Green?” He asked.

The Junimo known as Green bounced up and down a few times and hopped around on one leg. It shimmied and shook around making a few more frantic sounds.

“… Well if you must. The ramifications if things end up poorly due to your decisions falls completely on you and the rest of your kind.” He waved his hand and Apollyon was able to move again.

With his newly acquired freedom Apollyon crawled backwards as fast as he could till his back hit the wall. “What the hell?! Keep that apple bastard away from me!”

Green didn’t seem very happy to be called an apple bastard and made several gestures that looked like they were scolding him. The Wizard seemed mildly amused by this. 

“I am sorry about that but please try to understand, I know who and what you are. I know the destruction you can potentially bring to the valley and I simply cannot allow it.” He looked down at Green and frowned. “However, this Junimo has informed me that you are under their protection, somewhat. You have no reason to fear them.”

Apollyon felt like he was going to die right then and there. “Um if you know that stuff about me you should know damn well I should be fearing these apple bastards. We are not going to get along. Also, you just tried to kill me.” He attempted to shoo Green away but Green appeared to just place its stick arms where its hips might be and started to berate him again.

“Green said that you found the golden scroll they left for you.”

“I couldn’t read it… I left it in the community centre.”

“… I will be back.” Within the blink of an eye the Wizard vanished, and within a second blink he was walking through the front door, startling both Apollyon and Green. “The language was obscure but I deciphered it; We, the Junimo, are happy to aid you. In return, we ask for gifts of the valley. If you are one with the forest then you will see the true nature of this scroll.”

“… Alright then.” Apollyon slowly got to his feet and tried to edge himself towards the door. “Well I couldn’t read it so I guess I’m not one with the forest. I’ll be seeing you guys later.”

Green squealed and ran to stand between Apollyon and the door. They didn’t seem to want to let Apollyon leave.

The Wizard sighed a little and shook his head. “Apollyon, despite your… you. The Junimo seem to think that you are their chosen hero. They are not ones to change their minds once they have made a decision… Please come here.” He almost forcibly lead Apollyon over towards a bubbling cauldron in the corner of his home. He put some of the liquid into a cup and held it to Apollyon. “My cauldron is bubbling with ingredients from the forest. Baby fern, moss grub, caramel-top toadstool… Drink up and let the essence of the forest permeate your body.”

“Hey, I haven’t agreed to anything here Wizard and apple bastard.” Snapped Apollyon. “You just tried to kill me and that apple… I’m not a hero. I never have been and I never will be. I’m just some messed up guy. Look at me! Even before I got beaten up by slimes I was still messed up.”

Green danced around Apollyon’s legs and made frustrated sounds. The Wizard also seemed annoyed. “Look, I do not like this anymore than you do but the spirits have chosen you so drink up. Don’t make me force you.”

Apollyon sighed a little and shook his head. He didn’t want to do this but if it meant he could get the hell out of there the better. He quickly downed the putrid potion, gaging in the process. Seconds later his vision went all green and he started to see leaves and trees dancing before his eyes. This was the weirdest drug tip he had been on in a while.

When his drug trip worse off Apollyon found he was lying on the ground outside the Wizard’s tower with his axe embedded into the ground next to him. This was not how he expected today to turn out. He was apparently the chosen hero of the Junimo and almost got murdered. He decided the only sensible thing to do in this situation was obvious. He was going to ignore it. He grabbed his axe and headed back to his farm.

When he got there he was surprised to see Marnie holding something that looked a lot like a plucked chicken. “What the heck?”

***

The gold pouch had not moved from its place on Sebastian’s desk since Apollyon had placed it there. He wasn’t really sure how he felt about it. Sure it was technically a repayment for ruining his clothes, but it felt weird somehow. It wasn’t his fault he’d coughed so much blood onto him. He hoped the farmer was doing okay now and not getting into trouble.

Sebastian sighed a little and finished up his work. He had a relatively easy job today and nothing else really lined up for the rest of the week. Checking the time Sebastian decided it was about time to venture out and find some food for himself.

His mum happened to see him walk into the hallway from her desk. “Sebby! Can I ask you a favour?”

This never turned out well for him, but he put on a smile, no matter how fake, for her. “Yeah mum?”

“Can you take the pot in the kitchen back to the farmer?”

Ah yes, the farmer had brought over some soup to thank them all for taking him to the doctors. They had it for dinner that night. It was kind of watery but good. However Sebastian didn’t feel like going that far outside today, or any day for that matter. “Um…”

“Just take the shortcut love.” Said Robin. “You’ll be there and back before you know it.”

“… Okay.” He didn’t really want to go all the way down to the farm but it was hard to say no to his mum. Sebastian grabbed the pot from the kitchen and used the shortcut to get to the farm. It was around midday so he’d just stop by the saloon and grab something from Gus to eat. He wasn’t overly hungry at the moment. He could wait.

As he passed the threshold of the farm Sebastian was surprised to see it didn’t look nearly as over grown as he remembered. Though to be fair the last time he had ventured out here was when Abby had declared that she was going monster hunting and taking him and Sam with her. That night ended with a lot of scrapes and bug bites.

“Meow.”

Sebastian jumped a little and almost dropped the pot when a thing pretending to be a cat marched in front of him. It was some ugly, hairless, wrinkly blue eyed thing. It continued to glare at him as Sebastian tried to figure out if it was going to murder him or not.

Suddenly Apollyon walked out from around his house shaking a container of cat food. “Goblin! Goblin! Din din’s Goblin!”

The cat known as Goblin quickly raced over to Apollyon and climbed up his leg. “Meow!”

“Claws! Ow! Ow! Ow! Hi Sebastian. Ow! I see you met Goblin.” He pried the hairless beast off his leg and walked back into his house. “Come on in.”

Sebastian very reluctantly followed Apollyon into his home, kind of surprised to see it was just one room with a table, chair, TV, and bed. He watched as Apollyon poured some food into Goblin’s food bowl by the fire place.

“Goblin is a good girl, she just has a tendency to climb everything. I ordered some cat shirts online so she doesn’t get sunburnt or cold in winter.” He gave the cat a few more pats before giving Sebastian his full attention. “So what can I do for you?”

Sebastian held the pot out. “Just returning this…”

“Ah, thanks.” Apollyon took it back and smiled brightly. “I only had like a day’s worth left of drinkable water left.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t have running water yet so I take water from ponds on my property and boil it before drinking it.” He put the pot on the table. “… Do you want something to eat or drink?”

“Nah, I’m good… Where did you get Goblin anyway?”

Apollyon looked down at his cat, smiling fondly. “Oh, Marnie came by after I went for a foraging trip by the Wizard tower… Anyway, I came back home and Marine said that this poor girl was all lost and wandering around my place so I adopted her. Good old Goblin cat.”

“Meow.”

“Yes, you are a goblin.”

Goblin jumped up onto the bed and curled up on his pillow. She flicked her tail as she watched the two men from her vantage point. “Meow.”

“You’re also a loud goblin.”

Sebastian felt like he had filled his social interaction quota for the day and took a step towards the door. “Yeah well, I’ll see you later then.”

“Oh, okay then… Oh! Are you going to the flower dance?”

Sebastian groaned. “I had forgotten that was coming up. I don’t want to be outside and do some stupid dance…”

Apollyon laughed a little. “Ah, well I’m sure it’ll still be a good time. See you there.”

“Yeah…” Sebastian quickly left Hellfire farm. The farmer sure was a strange guy.


	6. Flower Dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bleh, finally back from the dysfunctional family reunion! Hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Ever since Apollyon had gone to the Wizard’s tower he had been seeing more and more Junimo’s popping up around his farm trying to get his attention. This mainly seemed to be because Goblin had decided to try and chase and eat the apple bastards whenever they showed up. Apparently animals could clearly see spirits.

Apollyon was still damn sure one of them was going to suddenly jump up and knife him in the back if he wasn’t careful, but he was slowly getting used to them being around him. Every time he had a plant to harvest one or two of them would dance around it and try to herd him towards the community center once he had harvested it. 

Out of curiosity he had once gone up with a bunch of wild crops he had foraged. Holding them out to the golden scroll they vanished from his hand and once he filled in the Spring foraging bundle a pack of thirty Spring seeds appeared in his hands like magic. He did the same with a Spring crops bundle and got twenty packets of Speed-Gro fertilizer. 

After that the Junimo’s appeared less around his crops. If Apollyon had to hazard a guess he could only assume that the apple bastards were just trying to show him what to do. Give them stuff and they would return the favour.

“MEOW!” Apollyon sat up in his bed to see Goblin chasing after a Junimo he had dubbed Blue, because well it was blue. He hoped that Goblin would continue to watch over him and chase the Junimo’s away.

He stretched and scratched his head as he watched Blue escape out the door with Goblin in hot pursuit. Apollyon really needed to lock his doors. He pulled on his clothes and walked outside. Today was the day of the flower dance. After he quickly watered his plants and chased away a few Jumino with his scythe he made is way down to the field near Cindersap Forest.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying their time talking with each other and getting all kind of food and drink from the table, which he could only assume Gus had provided. He immediately spotted Emily showing off her dress to Caroline. A white dress with several dozen embroidered flowers placed here and there. 

“So I guess it’s tradition for you to wear this kind of stuff?” Asked Apollyon.

Emily grinned and did a little twirl for him. “Yep. All the girls wear these kinds of dresses, see?” She gestured over towards several other of the girls wearing white dresses and several of the guys wearing blue suits. Apollyon couldn’t help but let a very undignified snort escape his mouth when he saw Sam and Sebastian wearing suits. They looked so strange it was laughable.

Caroline smiled happily at him. “Are you going to dance this year Apollyon?”

Apollyon shrugged and looked over at Emily. “Shall we dance my lady?” He didn’t expect her to say yes, but he wouldn’t object to it either.

“Ah, sorry but I already promised to dance with Shane. Maybe next year?”

“That’s cool. I’m gonna go and see if Pam spiked the punch yet. Enjoy the dance.”

“You too. Oh by the way, your aura’s especially bright today. Very purple.”

That made Apollyon smile a little. “Thanks Emily.” He made his way to the far side of the snack table, grabbing himself a little cupcake thing with a flower on it and sat near a patch of wildflowers. Everyone seemed like they were having a good time. To busy himself, Apollyon picked a few flowers and started to make a flower crown.

Suddenly Jas and Vincent ran over to him. “Hey! What happened to your eye?” Asked Vincent. “It’s all red and bloody.”

“Don’t be rude.” Said Jas. “You can’t just ask someone questions like that.”

Apollyon chuckled a little. “It’s okay. I got into a really bad fight with some slimes. They hurt me a lot but Doc Harvey helped to patch me up, and I helped protect the town from evil slimes, so that’s worth it.”

“You shouldn’t hurt yourself.” Said Jas sternly. “If you hurt yourself then you can’t help anyone. Aunt Marnie gave you a cat the other day, right?”

“You know about Goblin?”

Jas looked shocked. “You named her Goblin?”

“I was going to call her Goblin Trash Cat the third, but that was a mouthful.”

“I wanna see the goblin trash cat!” Said Vincent enthusiastically.

Apollyon chuckled and put a flower crown on his head. “Maybe some other time. Goblin’s still getting used to her new home. You want a flower crown too Jas?” She nodded a little and Apollyon started on her crown.

***

Sebastian hated his suit. It was hot and itchy and freaking blue. It just felt weird and wrong not to wear black, but it was tradition for some reason so he had to. At least Sam and Abby were both just as uncomfortable as he was in their respected forced attire.

Abigail groaned in annoyance as she adjusted her dress for the fourth or fifth time in as little as ten minutes. “I should have ditched this stupid thing. Should have but I didn’t. This freaking blows.”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but hey at least I don’t have to wear a dress.”

She glared at him. “Samson there is very little stopping me from pulling this dress off and shoving you in it.”

“Well that would make this whole thing more exciting wouldn’t it?”

Abby rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “Screw this. You guys want to come over to my place and play video games after this or are you two going to go over to Seb’s place and jerk each other off?”

The boys blushed and looked anywhere but Abby. Smoking too much weed for the first time in their younger teenage years had led to some very interesting results that opened new doors for them. They also made a pact to never ever speak of that again or face the consequences. Consequences that no one really knew about but didn’t want to potentially invoke.

Suddenly Vincent ran over to Sam with Jas quickly following him. “Hey! Look at my crown!”

Sam smiled a little, seemingly forgetting what happened moments ago. “That’s pretty cool. Did Penny make that for you?”

The young boy shook his head. “The farmer made it for me. He made one for Jas too!” He pointed over to Apollyon. He was still sitting by the wildflowers and making more flower crowns and eating a cupcake. “Hey Sam? Now that I have a crown does that mean I can be the flower queen?”

The blond chuckled a little. “Sure. Why not? How about you go and show mum and Penny?”

The two children giggled and ran off. Sebastian wondered if he ever had that much energy when he was younger. He didn’t think so. He was still kind of a shut in even when he was younger. As he reminisced about the past he hardly noticed when Abby waved over Apollyon.

“Hey, farmer boy.” She said with a grin. “You enjoying yourself there, making flower crowns?”

Apollyon nodded. “Yep. I think I missed my true calling as a flower crown maker. I think I’ll give up being a farmer and do that.”

“You gonna dance with anyone this year?” Asked Sam.

The farmer shook his head and sighed sadly. “Nah. Just gonna pretend like I’m back in high school and sit on the sidelines. Be a wallflower.”

Abby nodded in agreement. “Yeah, dances suck. Everyone always running around trying to find dates and stuff. Being labeled a loser if you didn’t get a date.”

Apollyon chuckled a little at that. “Ah well, I never stuck around in a school long enough for that to happen. I think the longest I stayed in one school was like three months.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Get kicked out a lot?”

“Nah, my mum and I used to move around a lot because her and my step dad…” He frowned at the mention of the man. “But it was whatever. I missed out on most of the bullying crap one might usually have to deal with. Did make getting a girlfriend kind of difficult but that was neither here nor there really.”

Abby sighed a little. “Yoba I wish that was me… Taking the bus to Stardew Valley high two towns away was nightmare… I just wanted to step in front of the bus each day just to avoid all that mess. You know what? Screw it. You’ve never been to a dance thing, right Apollyon?”

“Um well I have I just never dance with som-”

“Then it’s settled. You can take my place.” She lightly shoved Apollyon towards Sebastian. “Meet your new dance partner.”

Sebastian stumbled back a little, not expecting to have to catch the farmer. He blushed at the thought of dancing with another guy in front of the whole town. In such a small town like Pelican town if he, the town basement dweller, danced with another man at the flower dance festival it would be just as good as yelling through a megaphone that he was gay, and while he was comfortable with his own sexuality the only ones that he had admitted it to were Abby and Sam.

Before he could say anything Apollyon piped up. “Ah, sorry but I don’t actually intend to dance today… Looks like it’s a formal suit event and I kind of just came in my day to day clothes. Maybe next year?”

Abby pouted. “No way. If you need formal clothes just follow me into the forest back there and we’ll change clothes.”

Sam snickered. “Do you just want to get out of that dress?”

“I demand pants!”

Apollyon laughed a little and for a brief moment Sebastian had a chance to look at him, like actually look at him without him being drenched or all bloodied up. In the sun Apollyon’s complexion was slightly grey and he had slight bags under his eyes. He probably wasn’t sleeping well, but then again he couldn’t talk. His sleep schedule was completely broken at best. His eyes seemed to be a little glazed over as he talked to Abby and Sam. It was kind of like he was tuning out and not really paying attention to what was being said to him.

“Alright folks!” Called Lewis. “The dance is about to start! If you have a partner go find them and get ready to dance!”

Sam sighed a little. “Well, I better go find Penny. See you two on the dance floor.” 

Abby pouted and looked at Apollyon with pleading eyes. “Take my place?”

He shook his head and stepped aside. “Sorry Abs, but like I said, I’m not gonna dance. Wouldn’t want to cause a fuss being the only guy dancing with another guy. People might think Sebastian’s gay.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “And wouldn’t that be a tragedy.” She linked arms with Sebastian and sighed dramatically. “Come on. Time to keep up appearances. Step on my feet and I’m going to punch you in the dick.”

“Um yeah.” He walked to where everyone else had gathered for the flower dance. The music started and he and the rest of the attendees engaged in what could only be called white people dancing. It was just some bobbing and swaying. Nothing really spectacular. Internally, Sebastian felt like he was dying of both embarrassment and the heat, and even more so when he realized that Apollyon was watching them. Now reasonably he knew that the farmer wasn’t actually looking at him, he was just looking around at everyone dancing.

Before he knew it the song was over and everyone could leave. There was nothing he wanted more to do than get out of this stupid suit and go back to his basement. He glanced over to where Apollyon had been standing moments before only to see that he was gone. He didn’t know how he felt about that development.

Robin went over to him and Abby, clapping her hands. “You two looked good out there today.”

Abby strained a smile and curtsied. “Why thank you. I was sure Sebastian was going to stand on my foot again.”

“Zip it Abby.” Sebastian quickly scanned the crowd, very surprised to see that the Farmer was gone. Perhaps they had decided that the festival wasn’t them and left? Unlikely, but maybe.

His wandering eyes were easily noticed by Abby. “Who you looking for? Sam? He’s still hanging out with Penny.”

“Oh um yeah…” He muttered.

Abby frowned a little and quickly looked around. “Farmer’s missing… Were you looking for the Farmer?”

“Was not.”

Robin chuckled and gave Sebastian a knowing look. “Apollyon took off about halfway through the dance. He headed off in that direction.” She gestured to the forest area behind the snack table. “I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

Abby shrugged. “Probably drank too much punch and needed to take a leak.”

“Probably…”

***

Apollyon had been rather amused by the silly dance that the villagers had put on. It made him laugh to think he had always felt like he was missing out on something in high school. At least while they were all dancing it left the snack table wide open for the taking. He had reached to grab the last cupcake when a damn yellow Junimo suddenly raced across the table, grabbed it and ran away.

Without really thinking Apollyon grabbed a tree branch and ran after the little yellow bastard. That was his damn cupcake and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let one of those tiny bastards take it from him.

He followed the small creature to a tiny clearing in the forest where several Jumimos were dancing around in a circle and singing in their own language. Apollyon was starting to think that was all these things could do; dance and sing. He felt uneasy watching them do their thing, but he didn’t have an overwhelming sense of dread like he probably should have. He didn’t really feel much of anything.

“Enjoying the festival?”

Apollyon jumped and almost hit the Wizard in the face with his tree branch. “Don’t do that! The hell are you doing here?”

The Wizard gestured to the Junimos who were still dancing without a care. “It’s the flower dance festival. Did you think it was just something that the people of Pelican Town did?”

“… Yes?”

“Of course you did.” The Wizard chuckled in amusement at a private joke. “You know, in ancient times only the Junimos danced and that was to bring fertility and good luck to the land. If you observe their motions you’d realize that it’s very similar to the way the residence danced today.”

Apollyon stared at the Junimos and sighed sadly. “I can’t believe it… Junimos are white people dancing… They dancing for anything specific this year?”

The Wizard raised an eyebrow. “You can’t guess? The Junimos are dancing for you. They want their hero to succeed and rebuild the community center. They also want Hellfire farm to flourish and for you to build good relationships with everyone in town… also something about finding a partner I believe? Some of their words are very similar to each other.”

Apollyon could feel heat rising on his face at the mention of finding a partner. “Considering what I am I doubt that anyone in this town would want anything to do with me in that way…” He started to feel depressed again. “They would be better off asking for my swift and sudden death after I finish the community bundles. Someone like me I just… The Junimo know what I am right? They aren’t stupid, right?”

“Um… the jury is still out on their intelligence.” The Wizard stroked his beard, attempting to look more important than he actually was. “Regardless, I um… I wished to apologies for my actions when we first met. I must say you handled yourself rather well. Most people would run away screaming after being released from that kind of spell.”

“Yeah well, considering the shit I’ve been through you didn’t actually come close to killing me.” He didn’t even need to look at the Wizard to know he was watching him closely, just waiting for him to elaborate. “… Being who I am and considering there are a fair few people more magically attuned than most would believe my mere existence is as unforgivable…” A nervous laugh escaped his lips. “Can you imagine that? Brought into this world without your consent and immediately labeled as an unforgivable monster?”

The Junimos continued to dance as the Junimo that stole the cupcake, Yellow, started walking around the dancing Junimos. They grabbed bits of icing and cake as it passed and stuck it into themselves. They didn’t seem to have mouths that Apollyon could actually see, but he really hopped they had mouths and were shoving said cupcake into their mouth holes.

“… One people’s monster is another’s hero.” The Wizard stroked his beard again. “Perhaps you’re just too used to hearing about all the bad things and none of the good things?”

“… Says the guy that would have smashed my skull in if an apple bastard didn’t tell you to step the fuck down?”

The purple haired man became flustered. “Yes well that was an honest mistake. You can’t blame me for jumping to those conclusions… Anyway, your farm has a very interesting energy around it. Have you encountered any monsters?”

“I nearly shat myself with a stone golem decided to jump up while walking home from the saloon the other day… and bats. So many bats…”

The Wizard nodded knowingly. “I see… Well it’s only natural with your reappearance. Do what you can and stay safe. Don’t make the Junimos regret choosing you as their hero. You should run along back to the dance, it should be wrapping up soon.” And with that the wizard vanished with a twirl of his wrist.

Apollyon jumped a little at the sudden movement and then back to the Junimos. Some of them were smiling up at him and waving as they danced around. They were happy to see him. They were happy he was here and it hurt.

“… You’re all wrong.” He muttered to them. “I’m going to fuck this up for you and you’re going to hate me. Next year you’ll be dancing for my death.” He stormed back to the Dance, hoping that he didn’t miss the end of it and would just be able blend back in with everyone else.

However that wasn’t going to happen as the dance seemed to be over and everyone seemed to be packing up. Sam looked like he had been forced by Jodi to help Gus clean up the snack table.

“Hey man, wondered where you ran off to.” Said Sam with a grin, but that quickly worse off when he saw the state he was in. “You okay man?”

Apollyon chewed his bottom lip as he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why he looked the way he did. “… A squirrel took the last cupcake when I already claimed it!”

Gus chuckled a little and shook his head. “Well those are squirrels for you. Ah, well can’t really be helped can it?”

Apollyon pouted. “Squirrels are evil… So where did Abby and Sebastian run off to? Gone to make out or something?”

Sam snorted at that notion. “No way. Abby bolted out of here the second the dance was over to get out of that dress, and I think Sebastian was melting in his suit. He’s probably gone home, if he hasn’t passed out on the way up.”

“Huh, alright… I should probably head home too… I have to go and feed Goblin.”

“Goblin?”

“Yeah, she’s my hairless cat. She’s an angry little Goblin.”

“Cool… Hey, how about you bring her over to my house around the afternoon sometime?” Vincent would love to see a freaky looking cat.”

Apollyon thought for a moment. “Sure, why not? How’s Saturday for you?”

“Perfect.”

Apollyon grinned and grabbed a mini quiche for the road, but his smile quickly faltered when he was alone. The Junimo’s were crazy. He wasn’t a hero. If those apple bastards were trying to get favours from Yoba he wasn’t going to answer them. He’d be more likely to take their request and find some way to turn it into a curse. Yoba wasn’t dumb like the Junimos. Yoba knew he deserved nothing and would get nothing.


	7. Jam session

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all are enjoying this. Would love to get some feedback if ya'll can spare the time.

Dizzy and disorientated, that’s how Apollyon felt. He was being taken somewhere by two adults holding his hands. They were taking him down some long, dark corridor to a secret place. Looking up at their faces he realized they were wearing white masks and blue robes. He too was wearing a robe, but had no idea how or why he was wearing it.

The two people took him into a room with similarly dressed people in robes and masks. They all stared at him and parted ways to revel a table and a bucket. Apollyon didn’t know why he didn’t protest when the two people holding his hands lifted him and tied him to the table. His head hung over one edge over the bucket.

The masked people started chanting something in some strange language. Apollyon didn’t really know what to make of it till he saw someone tale out a sharp knife Something like in this situation, there was no mistake.

Someone grabbed his hair and pulled his head back making sure his neck was completely exposed. The chanting was becoming more and more erratic as it was building up to some kind of crescendo. The knife slashed through the air. It felt like fine hail running across his skin.

***

Apollyon woke up the next day, his face slightly damp with tears and Goblin was staring down at him with one paw raised. It looked like she was back to slap him and wake him up. But when she saw he was awake she put her paw down and walked over to bowl. Apollyon went about his daily chores tending to his farm which took all morning. The thoughts of his dream still strong in his mind.

It wasn’t unusual for Apollyon to have dreams about his childhood. That particular memory he was pretty sure he had combined with a scary movie he shouldn’t have been watching when he was so young. Sometimes the dream would continue if he was in a really deep sleep and couldn’t wake up, but mostly it ended with his throat getting slit. That dream was the worst.

Around midday he picked up Goblin and wrapped her up in a blanket before making his was to Sam’s house. Goblin didn’t seem too happy to be made into a purrito but she took in her stride and only meowed at him three or four times on the way there. When he eventually got there Jodi seemed very surprised to see him.

“Oh Apollyon. What do I owe the pleasure?”

“Sam said I should come by and bring Goblin.” He gently patted Goblin’s head. “She’s a good girl and loves fish. Sam said Vincent might like to see her.”

She nodded a little and let him in. “Well Vincent is out playing with Jas at the moment, but he’ll probably be home soon. Sam’s in his room. Just go on in.”

Apollyon thanked her and walked into Sam’s room. He was sitting on his bed tuning his guitar. “Hey Sam. I brought Goblin.”

“Cool.” He looked up and actually saw Goblin. “… You sure that’s a cat?”

“Honestly? No.” He let Goblin go and she explored the room, sniffing things and jumping onto chairs.

When she got close to Sam he strummed his guitar a few times making Goblin jump. “Think she likes music?”

“Don’t know. Never really tried.”

He watched Goblin cautiously sit by Sam, watching the blond strum the guitar. She attempted to strum a string every now and then but she backed out every time. Just that little bit too afraid to actually do it. This amused both men quite a lot.

Sam patted her, chuckling a little at the way his hand moved her loose skin into a mash of wrinkles before snapping back. “You play anything?”

“I used to have a mbira, but I think it got smashed.” Seeing the confusion on his face Apollyon clarified. “Thumb piano. It’s an African instrument. You flick these metal teeth on it with your thumb.”

“Cool.” He strummed his guitar a few more times, watching Goblin follow his hand curiously. “So what do you think of Pelican Town?”

“I really like it. Everyone is nice and apart from a few annoyances, I’ve had a good time.” He looked around Sam’s room noticing the synth and the drum set. “A man of many musical talents I see.”

“Yeah. Sebastian plays the synth. He’s pretty good at it too.” Sam gave Goblin a few more pats. “Wanna stay for practice? We do some cover songs to warm up. Name something and we’ll give it a go.”

“Um… Nah. My taste in music is pretty awful. Wouldn’t want you to judge me mister music.” Apollyon’s musical tastes involved an extremely large variety of music with very explicit lyrics. Something he was pretty sure he was going to get judged for.

“Your taste can’t be that bad.”

Goblin looked up at Sam. “Meow.”

“She is warning you of my horrible music.” Said Apollyon. “She knows how awful I am and doesn’t want your ear drums to bleed. Trust her.” He picked up Goblin and put on a silly voice as he waved her arms around. “His taste in music is hecking bad. My screams for food are better than his music. He is a terrible bean.”

Sam laughed and gave Goblin a few pats. She didn’t seem very amused but accepted it anyway. “Alright Goblin. I won’t ask.” He looked over at the door, frowning a little. “Sebastian should be here soon. Bet he’d just love to meet you Goblin.”

Apollyon waved Goblin’s arms around some more. “Oh I met him already. He was holding the water pot and stared at me. He didn’t try to take my food so he’s alright.”

The door to Sam’s room opened up and Vincent quickly ran in followed by Sebastian. “Where’s the cat? Mum said you brought your cat.”

Apollyon chuckled and held her out for Vincent to pat. “Here she is. Goblin Trash Cat the Third. Careful, I don’t know how she’ll act around small children.”

Vincent stared at Goblin for a bit and gave her a few pats. “She’s all wrinkly and weird. I like her.”

Goblin made a noise and slinked over to Sam’s bookshelf, quickly climbing up and perching on the top. “Ah, I think Goblin is done meeting people now…”

“Awwww, I wanted to pat her some more.”

Sam chuckled a little. “Don’t you have homework to do?”

Vincent made an exasperated sound and marched out of the room, presumably to go and do his homework. Sam grinned and closed the door. “Siblings, am I right?” Sebastian made a grunt that sounded like he was agreeing with him, but Apollyon just had to shrug at the comment. He was an only child after all.

“So why are you here?” Asked Sebastian, obviously directing his comment to Apollyon. 

“Cat.”

Sebastian glanced up at Goblin and frowned. It almost looked like she was frowning right back at him. “I see… So that’s it?”

“I was also promised sick beats.” Said Apollyon.

Sebastian sighed a little as he walked over to the synth. “We aren’t that good… We need to practice more before we play in front of anyone. We’ll just embarrass ourselves.”

Sam brushed off his concerns. “Rubbish. We need the practice. Besides, Apollyon’s cool and Goblin likes music… Maybe we should call our band the Trash Goblins?”

“Were not naming the band after that testical.” Said Sebastian sternly. “I refuse.”

Sam laughed a little. “Okay fine. We’ll think of a better name later. Let’s start playing something.”

Contrary to what Sebastian said about them, Apollyon thought they actually sounded pretty good. They needed a drum beat in there eventually, but they were good. Even Goblin thought so. She jumped down from her observation point to enjoy the music. That and try to attack Sebastian’s shoe laces. It was all rather amusing, even if Sebastian attempted to push her away a few times.

After a while the boys called it quits, but that was just because Sam’s stomach started to rumble. “… So anyone want food? I have microwave pizzas and Joja cola.”

Sebastian cringed. “Make that a water and I’ll take it.”

“Same here.” Said Apollyon. “I’m not a fan of Joja cola, but it is a fantastic drain cleaner.”

Sam rolled his eyes and left Sebastian and Apollyon. This was kind of awkward. The only times the two of them had been alone so far was when Apollyon was either embarrassing himself or when he was apologizing for being embarrassing. He really hoped that Sam would be back with the Pizza soon.

***

Sebastian really hated Sam at this moment. He had said several times to him via text that he thought he was weird, but Sam insisted that there was something there. Even Abby had gotten in on the action and started to speculate about the farmer’s sexuality. Abby’s biggest piece of evidence had been the farmer caring about what people would think of Sebastian if the two of them danced together because that means he obviously doesn’t care about people seeing him as gay. 

Plus he felt like they had no chemistry at all. Things between them were too awkward as it was. Even now Apollyon seemed to prefer playing with Goblin than talk with him anyway. He watched Apollyon amuse the cat with a bit of string for a bit before Goblin decided she was done with him and attacked his hand, biting his fingers.

“Ow. The hell Goblin?” He muttered in annoyance.

“That’s cats for you.” Said Sebastian. “Next time get a dog.”

Apollyon shrugged and patted Goblin. “Nah. I like my Goblin… But if Marine happens to find a dog that needs a home I’ll take them. Animals seem to like me.” He smiled a little as he thought about something in his past. “I used to attract animals a lot when I lived in Zuzu. Though it was mainly birds and rats. They were pretty cute. I’m just an animal magnet. For a while this one crow followed me everywhere.”

“Huh, alright. Are there many birds and rats in Zuzu?” Someday Sebastian hoped to move there. He wanted to get as far away from Pelican Town as possible. It was always interesting to hear someone else’s experiences.

“Yeah, fair few depending on where you are.” He smiled sadly. “You know, animals made living there bearable… Have you ever been somewhere that was so loud it became quiet? So many people but your existence doesn’t matter one bit… If you just vanished one day no one would care. Nothing would be affected. Not really…”

“… So you’d rather live in a place like this?” He couldn’t imagine someone wanting to live in Pelican Town of their own free will. He was sure almost sure all the younger folks were going to leave soon. This town didn’t offer them too much.

To his surprise Apollyon started laughing. “Mate, living here is a million times better than the city. Trust me, people only move to the city to work in cubicles or to die. There is nothing more depressing than living in that black and white concrete place… I only have bad memories of that place.”

“Oh… Okay.”

“But don’t let my experiences put you off. My perspective is just one of many.” Apollyon gave Goblin a few more pats to which she purred softly at the attention. “I’m sure you could find good things about city life, but I like it here better… I kind of like the idea of knowing people and them knowing me, and not just knowing me as the emo looking guy that always orders a triple shot espresso every Monday. Sorry if I’m being weird.”

Sebastian sighed. “You’re not being weird. If anything you sound depressed.”

“Nah man, I’m so deep in depression I’ve done a one eighty and I’m back to being normal.” He picked up Goblin and gave her a little smooch on her forehead. “But that’s okay. Working at Joja really killed me. I’m getting better now… At least I think so.”

“Meow.”

“You’re a loud girl today.”

Sebastian had to admit there seemed to be a very subtle shift when Apollyon was interacting with his weird hairless cat compared to other people. It wasn’t just that he didn’t talk about depressing stuff around people, but he just seemed more sincere and grounded. He didn’t get this distant look in his eyes like he did when talking about other people and his smile seemed more genuine. It confused him a little and left an uncomfortable feeling in his chest.

Suddenly Sam walked in carrying some microwaved pizzas and a few drinks. “Hey there party people. Got the snacks.”

Goblin’s ears perked up as she watched Sam walk around with the food. Apollyon chuckled and lightly booped her nose. “You are a greedy little fat cat. You get one ham. Those pizzas have ham on them right?”

“Yep.” Sam picked a square bit of ham off the pizza and offered it to Goblin. She sniffed it for a moment before biting it, along with Sam’s finger. “Ow.”

Apollyon sighed and lightly scolded her. “You are not being nice today. Meeting too many people has got you all excited. Sorry about that Sam.”

“No big deal.”

Everyone relaxed a little after that and sat around eating terrible cardboard pizza and drinking tap water. Once or twice Sam dared Sebastian to drink some Joja cola. He obviously he would never drink that poison. However Sam somehow convinced Apollyon to have a little taste. He almost felt sorry for him when he choked and spluttered, scaring the heck out of Goblin. A light blush quickly covered Apollyon’s face which ran all the way down past his shirt. It was kind of cute.

Clenching his jaw a little he shoved his hands in his pockets. Yes, he was gay but no he didn’t really think that the farmer was that cute. He just looked cute when he was blushing, but he was still weird with clearly a few issues. Now he was kind of mad at himself for thinking that the farmer was cute.

“MEOW!” Sebastian quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he saw a particularly pissed off cat getting wrapped up a blanket. After wriggling and attempting to free herself for a minute or two she resigned herself to her fate. “… Meow.”

Apollyon shook his head as he cradled the animal like a baby in his arms. “Angry baby… Anyway, thanks for inviting me to your jam session.”

“No problem.” Said Sam with a grin. “Drop by anytime. You gonna be at the saloon on Friday?”

“Eh, maybe. All depends on if I decide to go fishing or not.” Apollyon pulled a face at that thought. “Why is fishing so difficult? Maybe I need a better rod or something… Anyway, I’ll see you guys around. Later haters.”

Sebastian waved a little and watched him go. He was still a little mad That he found the farmer kind of cute. He attempted to reason he found Apollyon’s blush cute the same way he found Sam cute when he got really sleepy; cute in that instance and nothing more. Plus if he actually liked the farmer that would ruin his plans of escaping Pelican Town and running away to Zuzu city when he had saved up enough. 

He noticed Sam’s eyes on him. “… What do you want?”

“Dude, you hardly said anything while Apollyon was here… This is the Ben thing all over again.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “It’s not. I had a crush on him back then and we both knew that band geek was as straight as a ramp. I just still don’t know what to make of him. He kind of weirds me out.”

“You said that about Ben.”

Sebastian was going to punch Sam right in the nose. “It’s totally different… Besides, think rationally for a moment, what the hell is the chance that a gay farmer would move here and actually like a gay basement dwelling troll. Plus it’s not like if you put two gay guys in a room they are immediately going to get together. That would be like saying you and Abby are going get together if I locked you two in a room.”

“Someone say my name?” Asked Abigail as she climbed through Sam’s window and scooped up a cold slice of untouched microwave pizza. “Hmmm ham and cheese.”

The boys didn’t even flinch. They were used to her entering via the window when she was escaping whatever punishment her parents were trying to enforce on her. “So, what did you do this time?” Asked Sam. “You missed practice.”

“Cut me some slack.” She whined. “All I did was call Morris a fucked faced old goat that should get run over by Lewis’s car and thrown in the river, and my mum heard me… Anyway, what are you two yammering about?”

“Sebastian and the farmer.” Informed Sam.

“Ooooo, so Sebastian has feelings other than fuck off and leave me alone?”

“Apparently.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. His friends were idiots. “Shut up. Don’t try and meddle in my nonexistent love life. You idiots don’t even know if he’s into guys. He hangs around Emily a lot. He’s probably into her.”

Abby frowned a little and nodded slowly. She seemed to be formulating a plan. “I see… Well it was nice meeting up with you boys but I must go. I have things to plan.”

“Whatever you are planning stop it.” Snapped Sebastian. “You stop it right now.”

She smirked and climbed out the window. “I’ll text you the details later Sam. Sebastian, you don’t worry your pretty little head. By the time my plan is over we’ll know if you can get a piece of that farmer.”

Sebastian let out an exasperated sigh. “Even if he is into men he might not even like me because I am not into him… and she’s gone… I blame you for this Sam. You are encouraging her.”

Sam shrugged and strummed his guitar.


	8. The amazing match making Junimos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Junimo's are trying their best. Too bad they kind of suck. Enjoy this chapter.

To almost all residence the community center was nothing more than a decrepit old building with nothing going on inside it. However those in the loop knew it was anything but. The Junimo’s were running around the abandoned building almost overly excited that someone was giving them offerings once again.

Blue was bouncing happily in front of the fish tank scroll, delighted to see that several fish had already been offered up. “Maybe in a year or two the farmer will have finished this bundle! We’ll be strong enough to move that big rock in front of the mines!”

Yellow made a happy sound as they attempted to jump over a cracked floorboard. “Yeah! They already finished the Spring lists for the Foraging and pantry bundles! Good pick. Good farmer.”

“We shall see about that young Junimos.” An old white Junimo with a tiny twig cane waddled over to the fire place and sat in front of it. “This could still all be for naught if the farmer turns to the dark side and joins the evil one… The human known as… Morris…”

Yellow shuddered at that name and several Junimo’s made distressed sounds. That man was evil. He wanted to do all kinds of horrible, no good, very bad things to the valley. If Joja was able to take over the community center their entire existence within Pelican Town might vanish completely. None of them really knew that that meant, if they would die, be forced out of Pelican Town, or be knocked back to the Yoba plane.

“The evil one will not win!” Declared Green. He stood on the shelf above the fireplace, waving their little arms around. “The evil one will fail! The current farmer is a descendant of the old farmer! The only other human besides the Wizard to see us in hundreds of years! I knew it when I first saw him! He is our hero!” Their little speech seemed to quickly rile up the other Junimo into a small frenzy of happy squealing and cheering.

White sighed a little and shook their head. Young Junimos changed emotions in the blink of an eye. “Just because he is related to the old farmer the new farmer isn’t the same person. They have their own hope and dreams and ambitions… And there is that little matter about how they actually came to be.”

A cautious whispering spread through the Junimos. They once again had gone from happy to sad. Green was having none of this. “Who cares about that? The new farmer is good! He’s just reluctant! He hasn’t gone and killed or hurt anyone in the valley! He’s planted crops and caught fish and started to fill our bundles to give us power!”

Red hummed a little from their spot up in the rafters. “What if the new farmer overworks themselves? The old farmer worked themselves to death.”

“Well he was all alone right?” Asked Orange. “We just need to find the new farmer someone to help them! Like the carpenter and the scientist! The old lady and the old wheelchair guy! The shop man and the house wife! The other house wife and… what did her partner used to do before he left and everyone was sad?”

Blue shrugged. “I heard he was known as a garbage man. No idea what that is, but it sounds super important.”

Orange flailed their arms. “Anyway, maybe we should find someone to help the farmer? Someone that will make sure they don’t overwork themselves and keep Hellfire farm alive for many, many years.”

A purple Junimo jumped up and down excitedly. “Oooooooo!I know! I know! I’ve been watching the farmer for a while! Mainly because I was scared for their safety. They live with a mean pink monster! It tried to eat Blue!”

“You said you wouldn’t talk about that!” Whined Blue.

Purple snickered. “Anyway, the farmer spends lots of time with the groovy blue one, the grumpy drunk one, the spiky guitar guy, the sword girl, and the smoking guy.” The Junimo’s quickly started chatting amongst themselves, all quickly taking sides as to whom the farmer should end up with. Some of them even started mentioning others in the village.

“What about the science girl?”

“Moustache man! Moustache man!”

“Sweet, quiet book lady!"

“Artsy wood lady!"

“Mister writer man!"

“Pretty photographer!”

“Grid ball! Grid ball! Grid Ball!”

White sighed a little, overwhelmed by their enthusiasm. “We really should learn their names…” They could only see bad things happening if the Junimos tried to help the farmer choose a partner. They contemplated telling everyone this was a bad idea, but they knew it wasn’t going to work. Hopefully the farmer wasn’t going to take too much offence and feed them to their pink monster animal.

***

Summer quickly rolled around and Apollyon had decided to do his best to get good at fishing. Since around seven in the morning he had parked his ass a few meters away from Leah’s home. He hoped that she wouldn’t mind him fishing so close to her place. He was trying to keep quiet, but it was pretty frustrating when the damn fish kept getting away. He was one escape away from snapping his fishing rod and jumping in himself to catch the fish that way. Like a bear.

With small screech he managed to pull up his third sunfish. While he had caught the fish he couldn’t help but feel like some part of his brain was about to explode. On one hand the apple bastards wanted a sunfish for some weird reason, but now he had three. Three and he had been struggling for hours. Hours damn it. After that struggle he would have felt so much more accomplished if he had caught something else.

“You catching any good fish lad?”

Apollyon jumped a little and looked over at Willy. It was a little unusual for the sailor to be spotted anywhere but the beach or the saloon. “Eh, mainly sunfish… I caught a carp in Spring.”

Willy nodded and cast his own line out into the water. “If you have the passion for it you can catch all kind of things. I’m thinking about ordering in some more fishing rods.”

“Really?”

“Yep. They’re advertised to be lighter, more flexible, and the parts they used for the reel are meant to make fishing smoother and less jarring.”

“That sounds amazing. I might actually be able to catch something other than a sunfish…”

Willy chuckled a little and quickly reeled in a fish. Much to Apollyon’s dismay he managed to catch a sturgeon. He needed one of those for the apple bastard’s bundles too. “Well what do you know? Looks like I got a nice fat one for dinner tonight.”

“Yeah, good job.”

Willy smiled a little and patted Apollyon on the back. “Keep at it lad. You’ll be catching all kinds of fish in no time.”

“Thanks… I’ll keep trying… Can I trade you one of my sunfish for that sturgeon?”

“Hmm, thanks but no thanks boy. I had sunfish for dinner last night.”

“Fair enough.” He cast out his line again and hoped for something else. It felt like he was sitting there for hours before something tugged on the line. With excitement and determination in his chest, Apollyon quickly reeled it in. Unfortunately for him he ended up reeling in a lump of driftwood. That wouldn’t have been so disappointing if it wasn’t for the fact god damn Blue the Junimo was hanging off it and waving at him. Without even blinking, Apollyon cut the line and headed on home via the community center. He was just going to throw the sunfish in there and let those apple bastards deal with that.

On his way there he happened to run into Abigail. She waved enthusiastically at him and ran towards him. “Apollyon! I was just about to look for you! Do you wanna- You stink of fish…”

“Yeah, I have like three sunfish. Want one? Please take one.”

She pulled a face at that thought. “… No… Anyway, tonight we’re hanging out in Seb’s room. Swing by around seven and don’t smell like fish. That crappy shack you live in has a bathroom, right?”

“… I technically have a bath.” He had two ponds on his farm. That was pretty much it. If he ever got enough gold together he’d have to as Robin to put in a kitchen and a bathroom.

“Alright, Seb’s bedroom. Seven o’clock. Tonight. Bring snacks if you wanna be cool.” She winked and happily ran off towards the library.

Apollyon was very confused but continued with throwing his plan of throwing a fish into the community center. He managed to hit Yellow square in the face. Well, he assumed it was its face. They were kind of just a whole face on a round mass. Point was, Yellow fell over when he got hit with a fish and that made Apollyon happy.

He eventually got home and had a bath on one of the ponds on his property. He kept an eye out for any angry Junimo’s that might come by for revenge for the fish thing. He saw one or two running about but Goblin easily chased them off. She was a good girl.

Later that evening he stopped by the saloon and picked up some pizza for the night. He didn’t really know what to expect going up there, but if it was anything like when he sat in on Sam and Sebastian when they had their jam session it was going to be fun. He hadn’t seen Sebastian’s room yet, but he had two clear ideas of what it looked like in his mind; dark and spooky, or bright and colourful in such a way as to make his eyes bleed. Either option was hilarious to him.

When he entered the house he saw Robin scribbling in a book at the counter. “Oh, hey there Apollyon. What can I do for you?”

“Um, where’s Sebastian’s room?”

“Basement. You can’t miss it.”

“Thanks.” He paused for a moment. “Um, when I eventually get a house upgrade can I get a bathroom and a kitchen?”

“Sure. Now you head off and enjoy your evening.”

Apollyon nodded a little and headed down to the basement, politely knocking on the door before entering. “Hello?” Sebastian’s room was just spooky and dark. It wasn’t unexpected but he was kind of hoping it was going to be so colourful it would make his eyes bleed from all the clashing colours. Thankfully he wasn’t the only one there, Abby and Sam happened to be there too.

Abigail grinned. “Hell yeah! You bought pizza!”

“What kind?” Asked Sam.

Sebastian frowned a little and looked over at his friends. “Okay, which one of you invited him?”

Apollyon felt like a heavy weight was suddenly forced down on his chest. “Oh… I was under the impression I was welcome here… I’ll um, I’ll just go…”

Abby sighed dramatically and lightly smacked Sebastian’s arm. “Be nice you basement troll. I invited him over. “Apollyon is cool. Look, he brought pizza. Delicious, delicious pizza.” She walked over to Apollyon and pulled him over to the couch. “What kind did you get?”

“Um, just pepperoni with extra cheese…” Apollyon still felt he shouldn’t be there. Sam and Abby were happy enough to have him there but Sebastian didn’t seem so happy. “Because you know, some places put cheese on it but it’s like they are trying to ration it out or they only use some crumbly cheese like goat and it isn’t evenly spread around or there isn’t a good dough to toppings ratio and you just get a mouth full of bread with a hint of toppings. It’s not good.”

Abby took the pizza from him and happily started eating with Sam. “Mmmmm, extra cheese. Come play Solarion Chronicles with the rest of us nerds. You ever played it before?”

“I was interested but never had the money to get the cards and books and stuff… I grew up pretty damn poor.”

“Living in a shitty apartment poor or my parents had to have three jobs each kind of poor?” She asked.

“My mum and I used to live in our car kind of poor.”

“… Rough.”

Sam nodded a little. “Sucks man. I used to live in Zuzu city in a really cramped apartment with my parents before we came to Pelican Town.”

“Boo, boring whiny stuff.” Complained Abigail. She picked up a can of beer and pushed it into Apollyon’s hand. “Drink and be merry. One should not play Solarion Chronicles sober. It’s way more interesting when a little tipsy.” She pulled Apollyon over to a table and pushed him onto a chair. “Let’s play.”

The other two boys sat around the table and Sebastian started to shuffle scenario cards. “Alright, I added the new expansion pack I ordered the other day so we’ll have a few different scenarios and also three different character classes, so go ahead and choose what you like.”

Abigail quickly grabbed the character cards and chose her character. “Sweet, the finally added the rogue! I am so gonna be her.”

Sam grabbed the warrior card. “Mine.”

“Brawn over brain? Sounds like you.” Teased Abby as she passed the character cards to Apollyon.

He looked over the characters. The ones left were wizard, healer, bard, and beast master. With little hesitation Apollyon chose the healer. “We’re going to need a well-balanced party so Healer probably suits me best this time… I’d end up getting myself killed if I tried anything else.”

“Alright,” said Sebastian as he finished shuffling the scenario cards. “I’ll be the wizard. Okay, so now it’s time to start our journey into the world of Solarion…”

***

Purple and Red managed to follow Apollyon from the farm to Sebastian’s house. They managed to avoid the fleshy pink monster that patrolled the farm and decided to set out on a mission that they had given themselves. Their mission; to get the farmer a partner. Red was smart enough to point out that they should try and steer him towards the humans that he was getting along well with.

So both of them were really excited when Apollyon happened to go to Sebastian’s room where Abigail and Sam also happened to be. They hid under the couch and watched as the young adults play some card game.

Purple sighed a little as they watched the young adults talking and eating pizza. “So… What are we meant to do? Just watch?”

“Yeah,” said Red. “You see, humans have this thing called love that makes them want to be together. It’s different from us Junimos. We just you know, get to a certain age and then split into two. Humans don’t do that.”

“Well what do they do?”

Red shrugged. “I think it usually has something to do with a lock and key mechanic? It’s very weird stuff.”

“… Have you seen humans mating?”

“Well not humans but I saw some mice going at it once last Spring in the community center. I can only assume human mating is the same thing… But more emotional than chemical driven I think… I am no expert on the subject.” Red picked up a bottle cap and gave it a little sniff. It smelt like stale beer and rust. They decided to keep it.

Purple sighed again watched the action unfold in front of them. “… The purple haired one. She seems very happy to be around the farmer. Good pick?”

“The spiky blond one seems to be having a good time too. Also a good pick… But the smoking one? He didn’t seem happy for the farmer to be here.”

“Humans are weird. Maybe this is a sign of affection or something?” Purple pushed some dust into a pile near its spindly legs. “How are we meant to make any of these humans like the farmer anyway?”

“… I didn’t think that far ahead. We shall think of something! Maybe we should get closer?” Red peeked out from under the sofa and made a mad dash over to the book shelf. Thankfully no one seemed to notice of care that they were there, so they quickly zipped under Sebastian’s bed. Moments later Purple joined them.

“… Is this better?”

“I think so. I don’t think they are still playing their card game though.”

The two Juminos watched as the humans seemed for forgo whatever card game they were playing and started to talk amongst themselves. Everyone seemed to be laughing and drinking from bottles and cans.

Suddenly the purple haired one pointed at the farmer. “Truth or dare!”

The farmer laughed a little. “What? We doing this now?”

“Yep. Truth or dare.”

“Until I know what kind of dares you people do, I’m choosing truth.”

“Tell us about your first time having sex.”

“Abby!” Gasped the spiky haired blond one. “That’s like a round three truth or dare truth question thing.”

“Too bad, Apollyon is bound by the laws of truth or dare! Answer the question!”

The farmer chuckled a little and let out a wistful sigh. “Let’s see… It was a few months after I turned eighteen. My step dad kicked me out of the house for like the third time that week and I ended up going to the red light district in Zuzu city.” He drank heavily from his can. “I met this nice older woman. Mid to late twenties I think, very obvious boob job. Turns out she was a professional working girl and I lost my virginity to her.”

The purple haired one looked very deflated. “Oh, well that was boring. I was expecting something more… I don’t know dramatic? Heart breaking? Possibly homoerotic?”

The farmer laughed and shook his head. “None of my relationships have ever been dramatic or had any heart break on my end. It was my second time that was homoerotic.”

“So you’re gay?” Asked the spiky blond one.

“Nah, I don’t have a preference. I like both. Did you get this piss water beer from Joja mart or something?”

The smoking one shrugged. “It’s the only place that sells canned beer.”

Purple frowned and looked over at Red. “What in Yoba’s name is gay?”

Red thought for a moment. “Um… you see, there are two different kinds of humans. Humans with lumps on their chests and those that do not have lumps on their chest. Usually people with lumps go with people without lumps but I think when two lumpy people or two non-lumpy people get together that’s what humans call gay.”

“Huh… So the farmer is this gay thing then? Does this mean we can cross the purple haired one and all of these other chest lump people out?”

“I have no idea. Humans are weird.”

Purple sighed heavily and lied down, kicking their legs up in the air. “This is dumb! Let’s just choose someone and get them to be with the farmer!”

“… We can’t be lazy. If the farmer chooses the wrong partner they will both be upset and mad at each other and we might as well beg the evil one to flatten the community center.”

Purple sighed dramatically and flailed. “But this is sooooooo boring!”

Red pouted as them. “Well next time I’ll ask someone else to come with me! Maybe Blue or Green. Heck, even old White.”

Purple frowned and shoved them. Red shoved back. Within second the two Jumino where deeply engaged in a slap fight. However this didn’t really do much for either of them since they only had stick arms and no actual hands to slap each other with.

***

None of the humans knew of nor cared for the Jumino slap fight that was happening under Sebastian’s bed. They were much too busy drinking and playing truth or dare. Though truthfully Apollyon wasn’t one to get affected by alcohol as much as other people would. He was tipsy but Abby, Sam, and Sebastian looked like they were quickly starting to get drunk. He had no idea how much they had drunk before he got there or even during the game.

Sam seemed to be the lightest of light weights. He’d only seen him drink two beers before starting to chug Joja cola, and he was still tipsy as all hell. Abigail had at minimum three cans under her belt and was all flushed and giggly. Apollyon had no idea how much Sebastian had drunk but his face was slightly pink and he was smiling and more talkative than usual.

“So there I was-” said Abby as she made wild hand gestures “-Summer time, and for some stupid reason I decided to wear one of those shitty string bikini swimsuits, the kind you need to tie up or they will fall off, and a huge wave crashed over me. I went under, and when I came back up I saw my bikini top floating away out to sea.”

Apollyon snorted. “Oh my god. Really? Did you flash anyone?”

“Yep. My parents, Haley, Alex, and Emily. Flashed them all my sixteen year old titties.” 

Sam sighed a little. “I wish I was there to see that. Sixteen year old me would have been very happy to see those two… But sadly I was grounded.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Sam, you’re an idiot. There is a thing called the internet for all your boob needs.”

He shrugged and sipped some more of his Joja cola. “Yeah well, sixteen year old me was more annoyed that Alex got to see tits before I did.”

Abby laughed and pulled herself to her feet. “Well, everything is making me giggle like an idiot. It’s time for me to split. Sam, walk a drunk girl home?” She grabbed his arm and pulled him up, not giving him much of a choice.

“Huh? Alright. Later you two. My mum probably wants me back home soon anyway.” He waved goodbye as Abby dragged him away. 

Apollyon smiled a little at Sebastian. “Hey, sorry I kind of crashed your get together. Next time I’ll just decline.”

He shrugged and started to put away his cards. “Nah, it’s cool. It was actually kind of nice to have someone else join in. We actually made it through the Den of Shambalaran scenario without anyone dying. It was pretty cool.”

“Thanks. I didn’t think spell of healing was actually going to reattach Sam’s arm.”

“His fault for sticking his arm into that obvious arm trap.”

“I guess so.” He got up and started to tidy up all the cans and pizza boxes.

“Just leave it. Sober me can deal with that tomorrow.”

“Sober you can always use a bit of help. I’m used to cleaning up after people have had one too many anyway.”

There was a bit of silence between them for a few minutes as Apollyon busied himself tidying up. “Was it your step dad?” He asked. “Step dads are the fucking worst. Demetrius thinks he can run his mouth off to me just because he married my mum it’s fucking stupid.”

Apollyon laughed a little. “Yeah, I can see how that can be annoying… It was my mum. After my grandfather died things were really rough for us. Her more so than me.”

“Oh…”

Apollyon smiled at him. “Hey, step parents aren’t bad. Some are just more awkward than others. I’m sure Demetrius tries his best for you, even if he screws up a lot.”

“… Whatever. Demetrius is such a-”

“Hush you.” Said Apollyon quickly. “You’re drunk and I’m not going to get into some competition as to whose step dad is worse.”

“You’re drunk too. You had like four cans.”

“I have a very high tolerance. As far as I know the only thing that really gets me smashed is vodka. A few cans of Joja brand piss water isn’t going to ruin my day.” Apollyon started to subtly direct Sebastian towards his bed. Hopefully the young man would fall asleep once he was laying down.

Sebastian seemed surprised by their sudden closeness. He was more out of it than Apollyon thought if he was that easily surprised. He had to admit, Sebastian held himself together pretty well, and he did look rather cute with a light dusting of pink on his cheeks. He also had this slightly dazed look on his face which Apollyon found rather adorable.

“… You’re weird.”

Apollyon did his best to not laugh at that statement. The alcohol was starting to hit Sebastian hard. “Sebastian, you don’t even know the half of it. Go to bed. We’ll talk later in the afternoon when you’re back to normal.”

“Okay… Night Apollyon. Same time next week?”

He was surprised to hear that and was pretty damn sure that Sebastian wouldn’t remember the invitation he extended to him in the morning. But the gesture still made his heart race a little in excitement. “Sure. I’d like that. Night.”

He left the basement feeling a faint sense of happiness swelling deep within his chest. Apollyon felt good, really good. It was kind of a scary feeling for him. He had tried to not let himself expect too much or get too happy about much. His own self-doubt and anxieties wouldn’t allow for that. However after all the bullshit he had put up with working for Joja and the Junimo’s deciding he was going to be their lackey, he was starting to allow himself to be happy again.

***

Eventually the slap fight ended and the Junimo’s lay in piles of dust and food wrappers under Sebastian’s bed, their little chests heaving as they breathed heavily. If Junimos could bruise they certainly would be by now.

Purple sighed a little and looked out to see that there was no longer anyone besides Sebastian walking around the basement. “… Hey Red? I think the farmer is gone.”

“… Huh, so he is. Guess we better go too.”

“But the door needs people hands to open it. Are we stuck here till someone opens it and we can sneak out?”

Red stared up at the mattress for a few moment before letting out a frustrated sound and started flailing their limbs about. This was obviously not part of their plan.


	9. The hangover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick note, although this isn't a farmer/Shane fic I want my drunk boy to be happy and healthy damn it. Enjoy the chapter.

To no one’s surprise Sam, Abigail and Sebastian all had hangovers the next day. Though each one was slightly different in intensity. Sam, though he had drunk the least looked like he had been run over by a truck, and Abigail just looked miserable, opting to wear a giant pair of novelty sunglasses inside. Sebastian just had a terrible headache but otherwise looked like his usual self.

The trio were hanging out in Sebastian’s room as it was the darkest and quietest place in the whole valley. Sebastian was laying on his bed, Sam was on the couch, and Abby cleared off the table and decided to sprawl out over it. None of them really said anything. They just walked in and lied down.

After what seemed like an eternity Abby finally spoke up in a hushed whisper. “So, what happened when we left? Did you and Apollyon kiss or something?”

“He helped me clean stuff up and left.”

“Seriously?” Abby groaned in annoyance. “You mean we got plastered for nothing? You know Sam is a baby drunk. Look at him. He’s fucking dead.”

Sebastian glanced over to the rather dead looking man that was attempting to melt into his couch. “… Your fault for making us drink so much.”

“Shut up… I thought we’d just drink till we found out if he liked dicks or not… And when we found out he did I thought your dumb drunk asses would maybe smooch or something. It was a fool proof plan.”

“You’re an idiot.” Muttered Sebastian. Despite drinking a little more than he usually would he could very clearly remember a few details about last night when they were alone. Things like how kind Apollyon had been to help tidy up, and how close they had gotten to each other physically. It might have just been the alcohol clouding his mind or the lighting in his room but damn Apollyon looked good; a light blush dusted his face, eyes so warm and caring, and lips so soft. He wondered what it would be like to kiss them, but he wasn’t going to admit that. He was drunk. That was just the desperate drunk gay in him wanting to do stuff with another guy.

Abby experimentally took off her sunglasses before quickly putting them back on. “For fuck’s sake. You should have at least tried smooching him. You could have blamed it on the alcohol if you two didn’t like it.”

“Shut up Abby. You’re too loud.”

Sam groaned a little as he rolled onto his side on the couch. “Think Apollyon’s dead to the world too?”

“Probably,” said Abby. “You should have let him crash on your couch. He had like seven cans. Boy was draining them like Sam draining Joja cola.”

“He seemed fine when he left last night…” Now Sebastian felt a little guilty. He should have asked Apollyon to stay He wondered what he was up to right now.

***

“STOP STEALING MY FUCKING BLUEBERRIES!” Screeched Apollyon as he swung his scythe around, causing several Junimos to drop the berries and scatter. Did they think they could just steal and get away with it because blueberry bushes made several berries? Not on his watch damn it. Maybe they thought they could steal some because he had gone drinking last night? Not fucking likely. They were his crops and he was going to defend them as best he could.

“Hello! Anyone home?” Called Emily.

Apollyon waved her over. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Just came by to see how you were going and, is that your cat?!” She pointed over to the lazy naked chicken cat grooming herself on the porch.

“Yeah, that’s Goblin. She’s going to be less naked in a day or two. I ordered a cat shirt for her so she doesn’t get sunburnt.” He looked over at Goblin. “Hey! Stop locking your bits in front of guests!” Goblin ignored his yelling and continued to groom herself. “… She’s not very well behaved.”

Emily grinned. “Well I think she is gorgeous. I’m going to make her a jacket for winter… Anyway, I was wondering if you could do me a huge favour, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Sure, what’s up?”

It took a moment for Emily to answer him. It looked like she was trying to find the right words. “It’s Shane… He seemed to be in a really, really bad way last night. I mean, he’s usually pretty grumpy, but last night it was more of a hopelessness kind of thing… Could you come by the Saloon tonight and talk to him? Walk him home again? I worry…”

“Say no more. I’ll help you out. Shane’s my friend too.” He felt a little guilty. He hadn’t had much time to go to the saloon over the past few days. He’d finally worked up the courage to go back into the mines and had finally made it down to level forty. Ever since then he’d been swinging his sword and screeching at every dust sprite and skeleton that came his way. It was brighter in the ice caves but it was still scary.

Emily smiled brightly and hugged him tightly. “Thank you so much. This means a lot to me, and I’m sure it will mean a lot to Shane if he shows up tonight.”

Apollyon smiled a little and offered Emily some blue berry juice which she readily accepted. The pair spent the remainder of the day together talking about this and that till Emily had to go off to work. He made his way down to the Saloon around five and waited for Shane to show up.

***

Once the trio of idiots had gotten over the worst of their hangover they decided to go down to the saloon for dinner, or whatever meal they were up to that day. Plus pizza sounded really, really good right now.

The moment the trio made it into the saloon Abby made a beeline for Apollyon and hugged him. “I thought you were dead! How are you still alive?”

Apollyon flailed a little but managed to stop himself from falling over. “Hey Abby. I have a very high alcohol tolerance. It’ll take more than that to get me drunk.”

Sam looked shocked. “So you drank all that and still managed to get home by yourself? When did you get up?”

“Six o’clock sharp.” Said Apollyon with a devilish grin. “I got up, watered my crops, chopped down a few trees, skinny dipped and came here.”

“You skinny dip?” Asked Abby.

“I don’t have running water in my house yet. I skinny dip in my pond every other day. More often now since the weather has warmed up.”

Sebastian frowned a little. That must have sucked. He couldn’t imagine how annoying it would have been to have to strip down and swim in a pond every time he had to have a bath, but for some reason he could clearly imagine the farmer doing it. Was he very slim? Muscular? He had to at least be toned something fierce from all that farm work. He shook his head a little and tried to fight the blush that was starting to creep onto his face. He couldn’t blame alcohol on it this time.

Abby grabbed hold of Apollyon’s arm and started to pull him towards the arcade. “Come on, let’s go sit on the couch and talk about this more in depth.”

He smiled a little and gently shrugged her off. “Can’t. I’m meeting Shane tonight.”

Sebastian felt kind of uncomfortable hearing that. Those two hanging out together just seemed strange to him now. Was this a spark of jealousy? He sure hoped not. He shouldn’t feel jealous about a man he was claiming he didn’t like. Although, he was starting to look at Apollyon’s lips more and more when he was talking. Now he was getting mad at himself again. Why should he care if Apollyon was talking to the town drunk?

“Boo… Well you come over when you’re done talking to him.” Abby went to Gus’s attention to order their group some pizza and water. Lots of water.

He followed Sam over to the arcade, but continued to glance over at Apollyon. He was talking to Emily now. They looked good together. Maybe those two were going out or something? He’d feel stupid if they were. Of course a guy that was interested in men and women would end up with a woman. Especially in a small place like Pelican Town.

***

Apollyon was getting increasingly worried. Shane hadn’t shown up at all and that was giving him so much anxiety. Emily didn’t seem to be taking it too well either. She was constantly glancing towards the saloon doors and giving Apollyon worried looks.

By eight o’clock Apollyon decided he needed to go out and actually find Shane. He bid Emily goodnight and headed out towards Marine’s ranch. Along the way there he happened to notice an empty can of beer, and another one, and another one. They seemed to be heading south towards the sea and locked sewer drain.

Guessing that the cans might belong to Shane, Apollyon followed them till he came across the poor man lying on the ground by the cliff side and surrounded by beer cans. He looked like he’d been like this for a while now. Not too sure of what to do, Apollyon crouched next to him and tried to wake him up.

“Hey buddy. Time to go home.”

“A-Apollyon?” He slurred. “My life’s a pathetic joke… Why do I even try?” He let out a small sob that really hit Apollyon hard. Shane was going through a lot more than he was letting on. “I’m too small and stupid to… to take control of my life. I’m just a p-piece of solid garbage flittering in the wind…”

“Shane…” Apollyon really had no idea what he could say to make Shane feel better. Heck he had no idea if he could say anything to make the situation better.

“I’ve been coming here often lately,” Shane admitted. “Looking down… Here’s a chance to finally take control of my life. These cliffs… But I’m too scared, too anxious. Just like always… All I do is work, sleep and drink to dull the feelings of self-hatred. Why should I even go on? Tell me… T-tell me why I shouldn’t roll off this cliff right now?”

Yoba, Apollyon wasn’t qualified to answer this kind of question. He didn’t want to make it worse. He could always say it was a sin or something, but he had no idea if Shane was religious. He wasn’t even religious. He could say stuff about there being so much to live for, but a depressed and suicidal person wasn’t going to see that. He could bring up his goddaughter, Jas, but that might just make him feel worse.

He took a deep breath and gently squeezed Shane’s hand. “Shane, this decision is your own… Just know I’m here for you no matter what you choose. Okay?” He wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to tell him, but he felt like that was better than saying the other options that came to mind.

Shane looked up at him for a moment, looking utterly confused as he processed what he had just been told. “Thanks… I appreciate that… I really do.” He rested his head against the ground and let out a long, slow sigh. “Apollyon, I think you should take me to the hospital now…”

Apollyon was a little surprised to hear that but never the less he grabbed hold of Shane and dragged him to the clinic, practically kicking the door down to get Harvey to open up. One look at Shane and Harvey quickly carted him off into a back room to treat him for alcohol poisoning and Apollyon stayed out in the waiting room.

Maybe an hour later Harvey came out to talk to Apollyon. “I’ve pumped his stomach and re-hydrated his body. He’s going to be okay. It’s a good thing you brought him in though.”

“Emily asked me to look out for him, but I think I failed them both.” Muttered Apollyon. “I shouldn’t have waited for him at the saloon.”

“You couldn’t have known he was going to do this.” Reassured Harvey. He glanced back at the doors leading further into the clinic with a worried look on his face. “Too much alcohol is terrible for the body… but right now I’m most worried about his mental health… When he comes to, I’ll have a chat with him about his treatment options. I know an excellent counselor in Zuzu city.”

Apollyon hummed in agreement as an almost comfortable silence settled between them. Apollyon was happy to know that Shane was going to be okay in the long run. Hopefully he would take Harvey’s advice to heart.

“Life can be painful sometimes.” Said Harvey. “But there’s always hope for a better future. You’ve got to believe in that.”

“… I’ve tried to believe in that.” Said Apollyon quietly. “But in all honesty? Life is pain. Existing is pain… But giving up and offing yourself isn’t the answer. You have to keep living just to spite everyone that’s told you otherwise.”

“… I guess that’s one way of putting it. Would you like me to give you information about the counselor?”

Apollyon politely declined and headed off home. He’d let Emily know that Shane was alright tomorrow. He wouldn’t tell her everything just that he drank a bit too much and needed to go see Harvey.

When he got to his farm he was immediately greeted by several Junimos grabbing the blueberries that he had neglected to pick earlier. They stared at him and he stared back, not braking eye contact as he slowly walked over to a tree and broke off a branch. “How many times do I have to tell you to stay the fuck away from my crops?” He ran towards the Junimos and the Junimos screamed and scattered.


	10. Misunderstands and Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm surprised how quickly I got this chapter out. Some days you just start typing and you don't start typing. Coffee and insomnia also help too. Enjoy the chapter.

Much to Apollyon’s surprise Shane had knocked on his door and woke him up to apologise for being completely smashed the night before. Apollyon was just surprised that Harvey let Shane go so soon. He probably wasn’t as destroyed as he first thought.

“Don’t sweat it Shane. I’m just glad you’re still here… Is that coffee?”

Shane shrugged and offered a cup to him. “If you want it.” Apollyon took it and sat down on the porch, patting the spot next to him to offer Shane a seat. Reluctantly he sat next to Apollyon and the two looked out over the farm. “… Looks like you’ve got your life together.”

“Looks can be deceiving.” He took a long, slow sip from his coffee. “I think if I stayed in Zuzu for another week I would have jumped off my apartment roof. Would have been a perfect Olympic dive too. Judges would have given me a perfect score too. Eight story building.”

“But you have it all together now.”

“I don’t think anyone ever really has it all together.” He put his coffee cup down and pulled one leg up to his chest, balancing his heel on the edge. “… When I was a teen, I was really fucked in the head. I got into fights all the time with kids at school and around where I lived. It was always over the dumbest things too.”

Shane chuckled a little. “A skinny little shit like you? No offence but you don’t even look like you can throw a punch.”

“Who the fuck needs to know how to throw a punch when you can bash a skull in with a stick or curb stomp a fucker?”

“… Fuck, you’re serious?”

“I was a very angry child.” He picked up his coffee cup again when Goblin came over to investigate what he was drinking. The last thing she needed was caffeine. “I think it was a lot of self-loathing. Like, if I hated myself and if I acted like a complete train wreck people would hate me too. I just wanted to be punished and in some ways I still think I do now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but I have been better over the past few years. The last fight I got into was in the mines. My nails have finally grown back after all that shit.” For a little emphasis he held up one of his hands and wriggled his fingers. “I’m trying to do more stuff for other people now. Kind of helps a little when you’re a farmer, your job depends on what other people want.” The two fell into silence for a while after that with the two of them concentrating on their coffees.

“Um… I’m going to see a therapist in Zuzu city.” Said Shane quietly.

“Oh?” Apollyon was happy for him.

“Yeah, Harvey recommended them… I want to be a better father figure to Jas. I want to be around for her as much as possible and not just as some drunk old guy that she legally has to live with…”

Apollyon smiled a little and put his hand on Shane’s shoulder. “Good. You have a long term goal and going to see a therapist is the first step. I’m proud of you man.”

“… Thanks. I should be going now.”

“Sure, oh and um, if you feel like talking to someone or just need to get out of the house you can always swing by and hang out here, even if I’m out. I’ll put on a pot of tea or coffee or whatever and we can hang out.”

“You’re a weird one Apollyon.”

“I have been told that many times.” Apollyon waved goodbye to Shane as he ventured down to the path that lead back to his house. He frowned a little when he saw a grey Jumino following him while brandishing a poppy. “… Wait a second…” He glanced over and saw several more Junimo’s pulling up his poppies and running off with them. “You little fuckers!”

***

By about midday Apollyon had chased the last Junimo off his property and managed to get a bit of landscaping underway. He’d cleared some rocks and trees around the dilapidated ruins of what looked like a greenhouse. He was going to have to ask Robin about fixing it up at some point.

With the sun blasting overhead and the heat getting to him, Apollyon stripped down to his underwear and flopped into the pond with a splash. He dived down to the bottom and looked up at the sky. It was interesting to see the world from this blurred perspective. Kind of peaceful really. If he had a choice he wouldn’t mind being reborn with a fish body. If he could avoid getting eaten by humans or bigger fish that would be fun.

The blurry shape of someone standing over the side of the pond. Apollyon swam to the surface and casually shook his head, getting water all over Sam. “Hey! Watch it dude!.”

“You’re the guy that decided to stand over my pond. What’s up?”

Sam sighed a little and dried his hands off on his pants. “Well I was gonna see if you wanted to come down to the saloon with us tonight. You any good at pool?”

“… Why?”

“Just come down to the Saloon. I promise it’ll be a good time.”

***

Much to Apollyon’s delight, Shane was not in the saloon that night. Hopefully he wouldn’t be coming around as often as he used to anymore. He made his way over towards Emily and was about to order a drink when Sam grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over towards the arcade.

“Glad you could make it. Sebastian is absolutely killing me.” He whined. “You gotta help me.” He practically shoved a pool cue into his hand and pushed him into the pool table.

“Oof!” grunted Apollyon. He looked over at Abigail and Sebastian, giving them a slight wave. “Hey.”

Abby grinned and finger gunned at him. “Hey you. Sam was telling us he saw you skinny dipping today. I should have gone over to invite you over tonight.”

“I was wearing underwear…”

“Still, ninety precent naked.”

Sebastian muttered something under his breath and went to set the balls. “Looks like Sam got tired of getting beaten and roped you in.”

Apollyon shrugged. “He didn’t really rope me in. I actually like playing pool. What are we playing? Eight-ball, nine-ball, three-ball, one-pocket, bank pool or loop pool? Well I guess we can’t play loop pool, the table isn’t elliptical.”

Sam and Abby looked shocked that Apollyon knew so much, or they were surprised that there were so many variations of pool to begin with. Sebastian didn’t seem as surprised but he did raise an eyebrow. “Eight-ball. How do you know about the other ones?”

“I did some shitty things when I was growing up to make a quick buck. One of the easiest things was hustle people over games of pool. Mind if I break them?”

Sebastian stood aside and let Apollyon break them. He wasn’t the best at pool, but he was better than average. He hoped that he didn’t make a fool out of himself. He managed to sink the five ball, setting him up for solids while Sebastian had stripes. Through some trickery he managed to sink the three ball too.

Sam let out a low whistle. “Wow you’re good.”

Apollyon shrugged. “I know how to handle multiple balls at once.” For a solid thirty seconds after he said that were filled with Abby choking on her drink. “You okay there Abs?”

From the blue couch Abby gave a shaky thumbs up. “Yep. Just didn’t expect to hear that.”

“So you’ve been with a lot of guys?” Asked Sam.

Apollyon chuckled a little and lined up his shot. “Why Sam are you bi curious by any chance? Just yanking your chain. I’ve had more experience with guys then girls, though that’s only because of the drug and alcohol fuelled orgy.” He messed up his shot. Upon hearing that there were very loud gasps of shock from Sam and Abby. Sebastian, while he didn’t say anything, but he did look rather taken aback by that. Suddenly Apollyon felt very, very dirty.

“We need context!” Said Sam. “Context!”

Abby nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you can’t just say that and leave it at that.” 

“… Like I said I did some shitty things growing up.” Said Apollyon as he refused to meet any of their gazes. “Living in the city was boring. I felt numb almost all the time and just wanted to do something different. So I saved up some money and went to some anime con and became friends with some cos-players. Next thing I know I’m invited up to their hotel room and well… Things quickly escalated to where-”

“No one needs to hear that.” Muttered Sebastian rather bitterly.

Apollyon could feel his chest tightening as he kept looking at the ground. Were the fine grains in the wooden floor always so cracked? He wasn’t sure. “Yeah right… Sorry. No one wants to hear about that gay shit. Disgusting right?” He rested the pool cue on the table. “Look, I’m just going to head home… I didn’t feed Goblin and she gets mad if I stay out too late. Bye.” 

He quickly left before anyone could stop him. He heard someone call out to him, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to go home. He shared way too much too quickly and as always people thought he was fucked up. Well, he was fucked up, but not in the way most people would have thought.

By the time he got back to the farm his legs were shaking and he felt sick, in fact he was. Right next to the box where he put all his crops for collection in the morning. Lewis was not going to appreciate that tomorrow.

He stood crouched over for a few moments when the sound of something rushing through the air caught his attention. Looking up he was shocked to see a green skinned woman riding on a flying broom. He was pretty sure she was a witch. She quickly spied him and wooshed down to meet him, staying on her broom.

“Well, well, well, who might you be?” She asked.

Apollyon blinked a little in surprise, not really expecting this. “Um… Well who might you be?”

“I asked you first.”

“I asked you second.”

The witch rolled her eyes. “I’m Morgana, witch of the valley. Mixer of dark arcane elixirs. Dealer of the dark arts, and so on. So who are you?”

“… Apollyon.”

A wicked smirk graced Morgana’s face. “Apollyon? Really? Did your parents name you after what you are or what you would become?”

“… I don’t know.” Oh Yoba, Apollyon didn’t want to be dealing with another magic user. He thought the wizard and the Junimos were bad enough. Now he had to deal with a witch. “Um, look I don’t have anything to offer you so um…”

“Did you happen to inherit this place from your grandfather?”

“… Yes? Why?”

Morgana gave a knowing look and nodded slowly. “I see… Your grandfather was friends with me and my ex-husband… Rasmodius…” She had a ridiculous amount of contempt for the man it seemed.

Apollyon could understand her feelings towards him. He wasn’t a fan of the wizard either. “Your ex sucks.”

“So you’ve met the cheating son of a bitch? How is he? Still fucking useless?” She snapped.

“Um yeah… He tried to kill me when we first met so yeah… Look, it’s getting late so I should just you know, head off to bed and stuff…”

She crossed her arms and shook her head, making tut tut sounds at him. “Don’t be rude boy. I kind of like you… In fact I think I’ll give you a little gift.” 

Before Apollyon could say anything, Morgana quickly waved her hands and blasted some strange green energy right into his chest, making him stumble back a little. Satisfied that her work was complete, Morgana swiftly flew off into the night, cackling like a maniac.

Apollyon quickly lifted his shirt, trying to see if he ended up with a burn mark but found nothing. He was very confused as to what she did and would go and see the wizard tomorrow just in case. But for now he needed to lie down and sleep.

***

Seeing Apollyon quickly rush out of the saloon, Sebastian had a mix of feelings running through him. For one he was kind of shocked to hear about Apollyon’s sex life, and he was pissed at his friends for bringing all this up in the first place. He knew they were cooking up something.

Abby walked over to Sebastian and lightly hit his arm. “This is all your damn fault.”

Sebastian was stunned. “Me? What did I do?” 

“You cut Apollyon off and shut him down.” She hissed. “He probably thinks your straight as an arrow too since you cut him off during a gay sex story and he even called it disgusting.”

“So just because I don’t want to hear about a guy that I kind of like fucking someone else I’m the bad guy now?”

Sam perked up when he heard that. “You like him now?”

“… As a friend.” He could feel the heat starting to rise in his cheeks. Apollyon was a strange guy for sure and he had a strange history, but he was alright looking. He still didn’t think he’d end up settling for a guy in a small town. He’d end up with a girl for sure. No point entertaining ideas that won’t come to be.

“Sure. Whatever you say.” Muttered Abby. “Still, he totally thinks you’re one of those straight assholes that act all progressive and shit but would get all disgusted if you had to undress in a locker room with a known gay.”

“Shut up Abby.” Muttered Sebastian. “You two shouldn’t have brought this shit up in the first place. You should have just left it instead of asking for context, Sam.”

“Dude, he was a participant in an orgy. I had to know the story behind that one.”

Abby sighed and shook her head. “Well this plan was a bust. Nice try Sam.”

Sebastian groaned. “Seriously? You just… You two set this up to try and get us together or something? What the hell?”

“Hey, it was a good idea.” Said Sam. “No one got drunk and you guys got to play pool. He’s a pretty good player. You should ask him over to play some more.”

“… Whatever.” He was itching for a cigarette now. With a frustrated groan he slammed the pool cue on the table and headed to the door. “From now on pool on Fridays only… And no more of your bullshit schemes.” He knew his friends meant well, but Yoba they needed to stop messing with his life.


	11. Fix that bus... kind of...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you all enjoy this chapter. Please remember to leave a comment and a kudos. I'd love to hear your feed back :D

Five seconds after stepping into the Wizard’s tower and explaining his situation, Apollyon had been thrown into some kind of magic circle while the Wizard looked through different books and bottles. He ran back over and threw some gold dust over him and muttered a few words that sounded like gibberish.

“… Well whatever she did to you it won’t kill you.”

Apollyon shrugged. “Okay. As long as I don’t die I don’t mind… So I’ll just be moving along then?”

“Wait, you should talk to your mother. Let her have a proper look at you.”

“… Why?” Apollyon had no idea how the Wizard knew of his mother or her unique abilities. Plus the thought of heading back home made him feel kind of queasy.

The Wizard just scoffed at his reluctance. “Because your mother and Morgana studied the same field of arcane magic before… Anyway, I did visit you a few days after your birth and well… The less said about how that went down the better.”

“… Did you try and kill me?”

The Wizard became flustered and crossed his arms. “Child you are missing the point. You should go and see your mother… If you can get the bus working.”

“… What happened to the bus?”

“The day after you arrived when Pam came home from her shift the bus seized up and died.”

“Fantastic…” Apollyon sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Fine. Do you have a tool box?”

The Wizard shook his head. “Unfortunately I do not. Perhaps you could ask Robin? I’m sure she has a tool box or two in her place.”

Truth be told Apollyon had finally saved up enough money and material to build a chicken coop so he was going to see Robin anyway. “Um, okay. Fine. See you later I guess…” He quickly left the tower and made his way to Robin’s house via his own farm. However when he got onto his property he couldn’t help but notice a stranger in a black suit and red bowtie had wandered onto his property.

Seeing Apollyon the man adjusted his glasses and smiled almost smugly at him. “Ah, good to finally meet you. I’m sorry it took so long, but I had some managerial issues that I needed to look into. But you don’t need to know that. I am Morris. The manager of your friendly, local JojaMart.”

Upon hearing that this man was a representative of Joja, Apollyon wondered if it would be considered rude to threaten him with his hoe or axe. “Good for you.” He kicked open the wooden chest he used to store all the wood, clay, and stone he’d managed to pick up during his weeks.

Morris frowned a little, but to his credit he took it all in his stride. “Well, I came to welcome you to Pelican Town, and to offer you a JojaMart membership.”

“Sorry pal, but I don’t shop at JojaMart. I either grow what I need, trade what I need, or shop local. A mega conglomerate like Joja doesn’t need my money.” He quickly counted the number of wood and stone he had. If he was lucky he should have enough left over to make a preserves jar, or another mayonnaise machine.

The JojaMart manager seemed to be rather flustered by his blunt answer. “Well, I am sure you’ll change your tune soon enough. We are offering a discount to all new members.” He seemed to go onto full blown sales pitched mode. “Your first five purchases will be slashed to half price. And through our rewards system we can guarantee that each customer will get a twenty five percent discount at least once per season on all purchases over two thousand gold. We also give out free rewards on your birthday. Just a little bit of gratitude to show our loyal customers. So what do you say?”

Apollyon rolled his eyes. “No thanks. I don’t feel like selling my soul to Joja. Please leave me alone.”

“But it’s a fantastic offer.” Said Morris. He seemed to be taking on a more aggressive sales pitch now. “Please do consider it. I’ll slash the joining fee. Drop it from five thousand, to two thousand five hundred gold instead. What do you say? It’s a very good deal.”

Now Apollyon was starting to get annoyed. “Look, I am a farmer and I have things to do. Okay?”

“… Well if you change your mind, which I am sure you will, I will be at your local JojaMart, north of the blacksmith’s place. As a gesture of goodwill, let me leave you a flyer.”

Apollyon snatched it out of his hand and shredded it in front of his face. Noticing the horrified expression on the Joja rep’s face made his lips twist into a sinister sneer. “Get the fuck off my property before I slice up and threw you off piece by bloody fucking piece.”

Pretty much all the colour drained from Morris’s face and he bolted off the farm. Watching the fearful man run as fast as he could, which looked more like a fast waddle, it made Apollyon laugh. He looked pathetic. It was a spiteful and malicious laugh. Something he hadn’t done in a long time, but he didn’t care. He just grabbed what he needed and walked off to Robin’s house.

He happily pushed open the door and grinned at the red head behind the counter. “Morning Robin.”

She smiled back at him. “Morning Apollyon. Come for some materials? Need me to make a building?”

“Yep. I’m after a chicken coop, and a favour.”

“A favour?” Robin quickly ducked under her desk and pulled up plans for the chicken coop. “What kind?”

“I need a tool box. I’m going to try and fix the bus.”

Robin’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Really? That’s wonderful. Let’s get your coop sorted out first. Now, we’ll start with a standard one. Big enough for four little chooks. I think it’ll be good for a first time farmer. You can upgrade it later on if you like.”

“Sounds fantastic to me.”

“I’ll get started on it tomorrow. Now, follow me.” She happily led Apollyon out to the garage. As she looked around for it, Apollyon looked around too. 

It was a typical garage, nothing crazy was in there, which surprised him. He expected some crazy machinery here and there because Demetrius and Maru seemed to make all kinds of science things. The major thing of note to him was what looked like what could possibly be a bike covered in black and blue bike cover. He wondered whose it was and if it was fully functioning or just a hobby piece.

“That’s Sebby’s.” Said Robin.

“Huh?”

“The bike. It’s Sebastian’s.” She found a tool box and quickly looked through it to make sure all the tools were in it. “He takes it out at least once a week. I’d rather he bought a car, but he’s his own man.” She handed over the tool box and smiled happily. “Here you go. Good luck with the bus. Bring it back when you’re done. Okay?”

Apollyon nodded and happily took the tool box from her. “Thanks. I’ll see you at my place tomorrow.”

***

The Juminos had once again congregated in the community center to talk about the farmer and the witch. Things were never good when the witch passed through and cursed things. While the Junimos were practically immune to her magic they still didn’t like what her magic did to everyone else.

“She’s so spooky!” Whimpered Yellow. “What if she hurt the farmer? That would be bad! Bad! Bad! No good at all!”

The Junimos flailed at the thought. Blue stood up and flailed around a stick. “This is bad! But the witch didn’t make the farmer’s skin change colour.”

“But he threatened to cut up the evil one! That doesn’t sound very heroic.” Said Orange. “… Also, has anyone seen Red or Purple? I haven’t seen them for a while…”

The Junimos looked at each other, all confused. Several of them shrugged and a few other Junimo just giggled. Suddenly the door burst open and the two Junimo walked in. Red and Purple looked exhausted and had long beards on their faces.

“What day is it?!” Cried Red. “We’ve been stuck under the smoking ones bed for years I tell you! Years!”

Purple nodded and lied down on the floor. “We have seen things… Things no Junimo was meant to see and hear and see and hear…”

Green pouted and crossed their arms. “You guys were gone for like a week. Calm down you dummies, and get rid of those dust beards. You two look silly.”

Purple flailed. “But we saw things! Things on that magic screen box! Mostly lines and circles, but sometimes people putting things in other people! I do not understand! I don’t! I don’t! And were the people in pain? Humans are scary! I choose to abort this damn mission to get the farmer a partner!”

Green shook their head. “Anyway, your mission was to see if you could find anyone that could be the farmer’s partner. Did you find anything out before you chickened out?”

Red sighed a little and whiled the dust beard off their chin. “Well, as far as I know it seems the like the spiky blond and the purple haired ones think that the smoking one is a good partner for the farmer… But he doesn’t really seem to have the skills to help on a farm… I don’t know. I was too busy trying to make sure that Purple wasn’t too traumatized.”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…”

“We know you are traumatized Purple. Calm down.”

Green tapped their foot on the ground for a few moments as they were making up their mind. They quickly grabbed their bow and quiver they had crafted out of some little bits and bobs they found, along with a bunch of toothpick arrows, and quickly headed to a hole in the wall.

“And where do you think you are going?” Asked White. They leaned heavily on their walking stick as they hobbled after Green. 

“I’m going to find the farmer and see if I can talk to them. Failing that I will talk to the Wizard and get his help. The farmer needs a partner to help him and if the smoking one is the right one we might need a little something to speed things up.”

White sighed heavily. “Oh young Junimo… While your intentions are good I don’t know if this is such a good idea. With the farmer being what he is and all it might be for the best that he doesn’t find a partner… No human should end up with that. The end result could end in disaster…”

Green pouted. “I don’t think that the farmer is a bad person. They can’t help it that they were randomly dragged here anymore than we could have helped being born. The farmer deserves someone to help them look after the farm. It’s too much for just one person to bear. I want the farm to stay around longer than it did with their grandfather, so I am gonna do my best to help them. That what we Junimo do, right?” Before White could say anymore, Green quickly scurried off and made their way over to Hellfire farm.

***

Apollyon had been staring at the bus engine for about twenty minutes and still had no idea what he needed to do. Sure he had changed the oil and checked the spark plugs but that was the extent of his car knowledge. He considered just giving up and asking his mum to come over, but if she did happen to agree to do that she would bring along his step dad. Something he wanted to avoid.

Not really knowing what to do, Apollyon grabbed the wrench and lightly tapped around the engine. He couldn’t hear anything rattling and if sounded hollow. So that was good. Right? He had no idea. “… Is there a fucking manual for this thing lying around? For fuck’s sake…”

Suddenly Green popped up waving a toothpick around. “Pip! Pip! Briiiiiii!” It squealed.

Apollyon picked up the screwdriver and tried to push it away with the handle. “Get lost you apple fuck. I’m busy.”

Green grabbed hold of the handle and shook their body. “Nuuuuuuuu!”

“... Oh fuck, I’m starting to understand you…” He attempted to get Green off the handle as soon as possible. “Let go and fuck off. Go on. Piss off.”

“Nuuuuuuuu!” Squealed Green. “Hewp fwend! Hewp!”

Apollyon groaned a little and shook his head. He didn’t want to understand these things. Curse his ability to understand languages quickly. He didn’t want to understand the Junimos. He just wanted them to leave him alone.

Suddenly a rather despicable thought entered his mind; he could get a JojaMart membership. If he did that then Lewis would have to sell the community center. That way he’d be rid of the Junimo’s annoying presence forever. Even if it meant selling what little shreds of humanity he had left to Joja it might be worth it to be free of them.

“Mi ick! Mi ick!” Cried the Junimo in despair, snapping Apollyon out of his disgraceful fantasy. The Junimo had dropped the stick it was waving about into the engine and was reaching down trying to grab it. It was kind of amazing how helpless a supposedly powerful being could be in the blink of an eye. 

Sighing a little, Apollyon reached onto the engine and easily grabbed the stick and gave it back to Green. “Here… Don’t drop it again.” Those things were stupid but they didn’t deserve to get kicked out of the community center.

Green happily took it and put the stick back into the quiver. “Fwank ooo!” Suddenly Green looked over to the path and ran away. This left Apollyon confused for a moment until he heard the distinct sounds of someone running along the path. Much to his surprise he saw Sebastian running by towards his farm. His body was not built for running.

“Um, Sebastian?”

He quickly stopped and walked over towards Apollyon, he looked a little flustered and kind of exhausted. “Wrench.” He puffed. “Now… Please.”

Apollyon stared at Sebastian for a moment as the feelings of shame and disgust started to swell up deep within his guts. Normally he would have just given Sebastian the tool box and left it at that, but today he didn’t seem to have much of a filter between his brain and his mouth.

He smirked a little and leaned against the bus. “Well, well, well, didn’t think you’d be talking to me anytime soon.”

“… What? Look can I just have my tool box back? It’s mine. It wasn’t my mums to give away.”

“Bet you and your friends had a good fucking laugh behind my back, huh? New guy in town, not straight as a fucking ramp like everyone else around here. You three fuckers were probably laughing behind my back huh? Just digging up whatever stupid and dumb stories for more things to laugh about? Fuck off. I’ll give you back the fucking tool box when I’m good and ready.” He didn’t really know where this hate was coming from, but he had to admit it was kind of cathartic to be hatful to someone, and it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it. Sebastian made him feel like shit.

Sebastian looked kind of ashamed. “… We weren’t making fun of you behind your back… I just don’t like hearing sex stories from people. Okay? And none of us care who you fucked in the past. Sam and Abigail were just…”

“Just?”

“… They were asking those kinds of questions because they are idiots and um… They wanted to see if you were gay…”

“Why the fuck would they do that?”

Sebastian blushed a little and sighed. “Okay, look, I’m gay. As far as we know the only gay guy in town. Those two wanted to know if you were gay and then try to get us together. They are stupid like that… I didn’t mean to make you feel like shit.”

“… Oh. So they kept asking about my sex life after I said I was pan because?”

“Eh, I think Sam’s bi curious and Abigail knows that if she asks you that kind of stuff around me it’ll piss me off… Or they were trying to convince me that you really would go for dick or something… Do you know what’s wrong with the bus?”

“Nope. Not a clue. If I had a manual I might be able to but… You wanted a wrench right?”

“Yeah…” He walked over to the tool box and quickly looked through it, quickly finding the tool he was after. “So why are you trying to fix the bus anyway?”

“… I want to go and see my mum soon. Can’t do that if I can’t even catch a bus… I don’t even have a driver’s license so I can’t even ask Lewis if I can borrow his truck for a day.”

“… Seriously?”

Apollyon shrugged. “I lived right next to public transport and my mum and step dad didn’t have much time to teach me how to drive… So it’s either fix the bus or walk… or hitchhike… and I am really against hitchhiking…” Too many horror stories about people getting murdered, kidnapped, raped, or all three to make him consider it.

Sebastian nodded a little as he looked down at the wrench in his hands, slowly turning it around in his hands. “… If you really need to get to your mum’s I’m going into the city in a few days. I have a bike part I need to pick up. You good with motorbikes?”

“Never ridden on one but I think they’re cool.”

“Cool. I’ll double check when the part’s meant to come in and let you know. Good luck with the bus.” He quickly left, still turning the wrench in his hands.

Once Sebastain was gone Green quickly climbed back into view and waved happily at Apollyon. “Fwend?”

“Yes?”

Green gestured to where Sebastian was standing moments before. “Nu! He famer fwend?”

“Oh Sebastian? I guess… I don’t know… Maybe.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He liked hanging out with those three, but couldn’t help but feel upset at them for making him feel like shit. But he was sure he was going to forgive them after a few days. Probably. “Anyway, you have any idea how to fix a bus?”

“Owld!”

“Old?”

“Nu! Owld!” Green jumped onto the ground and drew a coin in the dirt. “Owld!”

“… I can’t pay a mechanic to fix this. There isn’t one in Pelican Town.”

Green pouted and stamped their foot. “Nu! Gimme owld! Gimmie owld an bws wiwl go!”

“… Are you saying I need to give you little apple bastards my gold to complete one of your damn bundles?” Green bounced up and down as if it was nodding. Apollyon grabbed the screwdriver and did his best not to throw it at the Junimo. “Are you fucking kidding me? You little shits are making me pay to fix the fucking bus?” The Junimos were a stupid and evil race of forest spirits.


	12. Going home part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a little taste of Apollyon's home life. Please remember to comment and or leave a kudos. All feed back is appreciated :D

Apollyon had tried several times to call his mum to let her know that he was heading over soon, but she wasn’t picking up. He texted her and hoped that would be enough. It probably wouldn’t be, but he could always live in hope. A day after Robin had finished his chicken coop was the day that he and Sebastian were going to head into the city.

He waited by the broken bus and watched in mild annoyance as the Junimos danced around on top of the bus. He had to wonder if these things were hanging around just to see if he could fix the bus. Green was there and waving at him while others like Blue and Orange were marching around, like they were on patrol waiting for something to attack. Probably Goblin.

The sudden rev of a motor made the Junimos jump. Apollyon just watched as Sebastian pulled up on his motorbike and tossed a helmet at him. “Get on.”

“Yeah, yeah. Give me a second. Don’t you need to know where my folks live?”

“Bike part first, parents second.”

“Whatever.” Apollyon threw his leg over the bike and adjusted himself accordingly. “… Where do I put my hands?”

“If you have good balance on your lap. If you don’t then I guess my hips or something…”

“…” A small smirk made its way onto Apollyon’s lips as he shimmied forward, making sure his hips were pressed firmly up against his backside as he let his hands firmly grip his sides. He couldn’t help but chuckle a little when he felt Sebastian tense up under his touches. “What? Too close for you?”

“It’s fine…” He revved the engine and quickly took off. 

Apollyon held onto him a little tighter at this point. There was something to be said about hurtling down the highway at what felt like a million miles an hour on the back of a vehicle that had no doors or windows. It would either fill your mind with worry or clear it all together. 

For Apollyon it seemed to clear his mind and for a brief moments he questioned his bitter attitude over the past few days. It wasn’t like him, but it somehow felt kind of fun. It sent a chill up his spine. When he was younger he had intense feelings of sadism. It was fun to play with people and leave them feeling broken and wondering why it happened to them, but that was years ago. He didn’t want to go back to that way of thinking.

Suddenly Sebastian pulled into some place and jolted Apollyon back into reality. It seened at though not only did Apollyon’s head clear but he lost all sense of time. He let Sebastian go and watched him slip off the bike and remove his helmet. Some of his hair stuck to the sweat on his forehead that he quickly tried to fix by running his fingers through his hair. 

“I’ll be out in a second. Just wait here.” He quickly disappeared inside. 

Apollyon watched him go, his eyes immediately drawn down his back and to his ass. Those skinny jeans were doing wonders for him. He’d probably look even better if he didn’t wear that baggy hoodie. He’d look sexy in a tight shirt.

“… What the hell am I thinking?” He shook his head and frowned. Now he was thinking perverted thoughts along with being abnormally aggressive? If there wasn’t some weird magic thing going on he was going to need to get his hormones tested. His testosterone levels were probably going through the roof.

It kind of made sense now that he was thinking about it. The last time he felt this way was when he his puberty. Those years were really rough on everyone. Especially any inanimate object that happened to be within his grasp. His rage always won out when he was younger. 

As he pondered this Sebastian came back out with some weird metal part. Obviously whatever he ordered. He dumped it into one of the side bags on the bike. “So where do your parents live?”

“…” He thought about telling him, but the need to be needlessly cruel and to make Sebastian uncomfortable. “What’s the rush? We could always do something else first.” He stepped a little closer to him, but Sebastian quickly put his hand up against Apollyon’s chest.

“Just tell me where your parents live or I’ll leave your dumb ass here. Have fun hitchhiking back.”

Apollyon was a little surprised by that, but he appreciated it. He liked it when people fought back a bit. He had a feeling it was his sadistic side starting to show through again, but he didn’t mind. “No need to get pissy with me. They live on twenty three Greenway drive. It’s a street just off Hazel road.”

“Alright.” Sebastian put his helmet back on and the two started their drive. It wasn’t too hard to find Hazel road. It was a main road after all, but Sebastian did accidentally miss the turn off onto Greenway drive. It was easy to miss. One of those tiny streets seemingly tucked away from the rest of the road.

Eventually though they did make their way there and pulled up infront of house twenty three. It was just some none descript two story house with a white picket fence and a flowerbed. Out the front by the door was a man smoking a cigarette. He had a five o’clock shadow painted across his face and a scar that cut through his bottom lip. He seemed annoyed to see the two of them or at least Apollyon. “Apollyon.” He grunted.

Apollyon was used to this kind of attitude from him. “Colt. How’s mum?”

“Liz’s fine.” He looked over at Sebastian. “Who’s that?”

“A friend.”

Colt looked at the two of them suspiciously. “Just a friend? Nothing going on between you two?”

Ah yes, his step dad was just as annoying as he remembered. “No. Am I not allowed to have friends now?”

“It’s never just friends with you.” Said Colt in an accusatory manner. “You find people, play with them for a few days and then leave them for dead. Last time quite literally if I remember correctly, you fucked his face up real good.”

Apollyon clenched his jaw. He knew Colt was just trying to bait him. He always did this. But he wasn’t going to play along with this. Not today. “Hey, didn’t the police say the same guy I almost killed was wanted for like three counts of sexual assault and one count of rape? Pretty sure I did the world a favour with that one.”

Colt pursed his lips and blew some smoke out his nose. “I’ll give you that one. However, still doesn’t change the fact you obviously have an ulterior motive.” He glanced at Sebastian. “Keep your wits about you kid. This monster is the kind of freak that’ll take everything you give him and then some. He loves hurting people.”

He could feel his blood boiling now. Colt had always been a bastard. He never had a kind word to say to him and would happily tell anyone and everyone about how he was such a horrible and disturbed individual. Trying to fight back and defend himself would just add fuel to his argument that he was a bad seed.

“Is mum home?”

Almost as if she heard him, a woman in a long green dress opened the door and practically threw herself at Apollyon, embracing him in a hug. “Baby bean! You’re home! How are you? Have you been well? Is farm life too hard?” 

He felt his anger quell slightly as he embraced his mother. “I’m doing pretty well. Farming’s been fun.”

She looked over his shoulder and spotted Sebastian. The man had kind of just stood back and let the scene unfold in front of him. “Oh, who is this? If you’re a customer I’ll be with you in a moment.”

Apollyon stepped aside and gestured to the raven haired man. “He isn’t a customer. Mum this is my friend Sebastian. Sebastian this is my mum, Elizabeth. She is reads fortunes for a living.”

Sebastian nodded a little, giving her a slight wave. “Hey.” He looked nervous and uncomfortable to be here. It wasn’t like Apollyon could blame him. His family was messed up. He was starting to think that maybe he should have just paid a ridiculously high taxi fare instead of roping Sebastian into this.

Elizabeth smiled brightly and went over to him, happily shaking his hands. “It’s wonderful to meet you. It’s always a pleasure to meet someone with a green aura.” She looked over at Apollyon and grinned. “You don’t tend to be around such hard workers baby bean. I can see good things in the future for him.”

Seeing Sebastian’s bemused expression, Apollyon decided he’d be nice and save him. “Mum. He’s not like you. Sebastian doesn’t see auras. I don’t think he’s even into magic stuff.”

She seemed confused. “Oh, but why did you bring him over?”

“He’s my ride.”

Elizabeth nodded knowingly. “I see. You two are welcome inside. Apollyon, back room dear. We’ll talk there.”

“Sure.” He gestured for Sebastian to follow and they walked into the house, leaving Colt outside. Good. He was glad that Colt didn’t bother following them in. He always rubbed him the wrong way. He had no idea what his mother saw in him, but he tolerated the man for her. The house hadn’t changed at all. It was still covered in crystals and all kinds of occult stuff. Some of it made his skin crawl but those items were very few and far between.

She smiled at the two of them and gestured to the couch. “Sebastian, if you like you may sit here. If you want to smoke please go outside. Apollyon and I have a few things to talk about so we’ll be in the room over there.” She gestured to a door with a star chart hanging off it. “But please make yourself at home. Come on Apollyon.” She walked into the room.

Apollyon sighed a little and ran his fingers through his hair. “Look, sorry about my mum. She’s a little weird, and Colt… He hates me. Don’t take anything he says seriously. Okay?”

“Um, sure…” Sebastian sat on the couch and awkwardly looked around. He seemed so out of place and unsure what to do.

For a moment he wondered what Sebastian would look like spread out and blushing underneath him on that old threadbare couch. Would he even allow it? Maybe he’d push him off and hit him? It would be interesting to see his reaction, but now was not the time for that.

He walked into the room his mother was in and sat down on a comfortable chair across from his mother’s extravagant peacock style chair. This room was where she did most of her fortune telling’s and tarot card readings. It was a very nice set her mother had inherited from a woman called Welwick. He’d seen her several times on TV telling the general fortune for the day.

But there was no time to think about that. His mother had dropped her happy demeanor and took on a more serious tone. “Apollyon, what’s happened to you? I can sense a growing wickedness in you that I find rather disturbing.”

“I got cursed by Morgana.” He said calmly. “The Wizard that lives in Pelican Town said that you two studied the same kind of magic and you might be able to help me… Mum, it feels like I’m going through puberty again… Minus the new hair growth, getting taller, and all that other hormonal stuff.”

She pursed her lips together as she thought. “That is odd… Apollyon, baby bean, have you been thinking about doing immoral things? You know, those kinds of things?”

Apollyon couldn’t help but let out a slightly embarrassed chuckle. “Really mum? I’m an adult with needs.”

“… You can say sex or fucking.” Said Elizabeth. “And I wasn’t talking about that stuff. I’ve never cared who you have sex with as long as it’s consensual, above the age of consent, not an animal, and you use protection. I’m talking more about the whole murder thing.”

“Oh…” Technically he had thought about hurting people, like Morris, but he didn’t feel like he would have actually acted upon them. He also wondered if threatening the Junimos would count. “Kind of?”

She looked disappointed to hear that, and that made Apollyon’s heart sink. She was the one person alive that he didn’t want to disappoint. Everyone else could rot for all he cared but this was his mother. He had to try and explain himself. She had to understand when he was going through.

“Junimos have decided I’m some hero of Pelican Town and are making me give them offerings to fix up a building. They annoy me.”

It took a moment for Elizabeth to process what her son just said, but once she did, she broke into a huge smile. “That’s wonderful news! The Junimos tend to have an either chaotic good or neutral good alignment according to human interpretation. I guess that explains why your aura’s started to become a little brighter these days too.”

“I guess… Anyway, getting back on topic, Morgana did something to me.”

“Right, right… Give me a few moments…” She quickly went over to her bookshelf and started to pull out a few books, quickly flipping through them. “So how is Pelican Town? Still milling along?”

“Yeah, it’s just doing its own thing. It’s peaceful.” Apollyon kind of appreciated that his mum was making light conversation as she worked. It would have worried him otherwise.

Elizabeth nodded a little and put the books down and started to look through her crystals and gathering her chicken bones. “I see… so are there many single people? What about that Sebastian fellow you brought over? Are you two a thing?”

“Mum…” He groaned. “Just stay out of it okay? He’s just a friend. I’ll admit he’s cute but I really couldn’t care less.” Though he said that he knew it was kind of a lie. He had an interest in Sebastian’s body, but that was no real surprise. He looked good to him as did most of the young single men and women of Pelican Town. If the opportunity came around and any of them were interested in screwing with him he wasn’t going to say no.

“Sorry, sorry.” She came back over with her crystals and started to place them around the table. “You know me, I just want to make sure you are in a happy and healthy relationship… No matter how brief it may be…”

Apollyon appreciated the gesture, but he knew this was an empty gesture. He was not made for long term relationships. One night stands or fuck buddies suited him better than that. The possibility of him finding someone who could love him enough to want to marry him instead of running in the opposite direction was practically impossible.

As he mulled over his own nonexistent romantic situation his mum made a knowing sound, like she had just figured something out. Hopefully it was what was wrong with him. She didn’t look too pleased. She was glaring at her crystals, almost frustrated with everything that was happening.

He was almost afraid to ask, but he had to. “… What did Morgana do to me?”

“You should work a lot harder on the farm. Maybe spend most of your days building things like fences and-”

“Mum!” He snarled. “Do you know what is happening to me or don’t you? If not I’ll just leave.”

The older woman looked hurt for a moment before she shifted in her seat, her body sagging in defeat. “From what you have told me and from what I know of Morgana whatever spell she cast on you it seems like it’s drawing out your negative emotions. The things you’ve tried so hard to keep in check… There isn’t much I can do for you now. You have to let this kind of magic run its course… Is there anything you can do to let your frustrations out?”

Apollyon sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Well there are these mines with monsters in them… I’ve been trying very hard not to get my ass kicked by the monsters in them… I guess I could kill some of those… And I guess I could pay a prostitute for the sexual frustrations?”

She pursed her lips upon hearing her son talk about prostitutes. “Apollyon, I know you’re going to do what you wish with your body and money so I won’t argue with you about that, but I highly doubt Pelican Town has prostitutes.”

“… Point taken.” That settled it. Apollyon was going to spend all his money getting a good internet connection, tissues and lube. His next few days were going to be spent either killing things or locked up in his home.

“… So is your relationship with Sebastian just as friends? He has a good aura so I wouldn’t object to him liking you, however with your given history. You liking him…” She was always poking around when he told her to drop it. Especially when she could sense a strong aura coming from them.

He chuckled slightly and shook his head. “I know mum. Sebastian’s a good guy, but we’re just friends. Besides, I wouldn’t let him get close to me like that. I won’t let anyone get close to me…”

“Baby bean…” She walked over and hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

He smiled sadly and hugged her back. “It’s okay mum… It’s not your fault.”

***

It was taking a while for Apollyon to finish his talk with his mum and Sebastian was starting to get a little antsy. Things had been very strange today with Apollyon. He still seemed pissed off at him for the other day and who could blame him? He’d probably feel like complete shit if he thought the people he trusted thought he was disgusting. 

Maybe Apollyon was getting back at him a little by being just that little more hands on with him than he probably normally would have on the bike? It seemed to make sense, kind of. He was probably just teasing the fuck out of him because he was gay. It was petty and childish, but things could have been worse. It could have just been he was nervous and slightly anxious about this trip.

He also needed to figure out why he had come out to the other in the first place. Sure Apollyon was surprised but didn’t act like it was a big deal, which he was thankful for, but still, to just come out and say it. It was strange for the usually introverted man. Maybe it was his hurt and bitter expression when they had their misunderstanding? Or maybe it was Abby and Sam guilt tripping him into being nicer to the farmer? Either way here was here now, and in Apollyon’s family home no less.

He was stressed. He needed a cigarette. He took the packet out of his pocket and stepped outside. Colt was still out there smoking away. Sebastian didn’t want anything to do with him. From the icy interaction he had with Apollyon he did not seem like someone to be trusted.

The older man paid Sebastian hardly any notice as he stood near him and fumbled with his own cigarette. He quickly patted himself down, searching for his lighter, only to groan in annoyance when he realized that he left it at home.

Colt chuckled and held his lighter out to Sebastian without even looking at him. “Here.”

“… Thanks.” He took it from the man and quickly lit up and passed it back.

The two men stood in silence for a bit before Colt spoke up. “You know, whatever your relationship is with Apollyon you’d better cut ties with him and distance yourself from him. Something like that… No one deserves to be tied to that in any form.”

The way he spoke about Apollyon made Sebastian feel uneasy. “Why do you have to be so hard on him? He’s just a guy doing his best.”

Colt let out a bitter chuckle. “Just a guy huh? Kid, if you think Apollyon is just a normal human being you’re going to be disappointed.” He took a quick puff from his cigarette and slowly blew a stream of smoke out of his mouth. “You’re not like us. I could tell from the second I saw you. You don’t have the sight. You ain’t no magic user. You’re one of those assholes that only believe in what you’ve defined fact.”

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Apollyon’s mum was a fortune teller and then this man obviously believed in all that junk too. “So? What does it matter?”

“It matters quite a fair bit. You’re not going to believe me when I tell you the truth, but I think it would be piss poor of me to not warn you about the sick bastard you’re all buddied up to.” He pursed his lips together as he thought of what to say next. “You know what demons are, right?”

“Who doesn’t?”

Colt grinned. “Well there are all kinds of demons and spirits that reside in this existence as well as the Yoba plane and the Void. Now what most people don’t realize is that not all spirits are demons and not all demons are spirits. There’s some overlay, but that all depends on your perspective. A very important thing for a lot of magic folk is our names. Names are power and that power can be used to do all kinds of horrible things to a body.”

“Right…” Sebastian was very quickly starting to think that this man was a little crazy, or at the very least this conversation was going to quickly spiral into insanity. He could see another reason why Apollyon wasn’t very fond of him.

Colt didn’t seem to notice Sebastian’s distain and continued talking. “So most magic folk either give their kid an obscure name that’s hard to spell, a name with power, a name with meaning, or a name given by the voices beyond our reality.” He took another puff from his cigarette and looked over at Sebastian. “You know how Apollyon got his name?”

Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t really care too much about names…”

The older man laughed and scratched his chin. “Well you’re in for a treat. It all starts a few months before the little shit is born. You see, the story behind the conception’s no mystery. Elizabeth wasn’t the most pure and innocent woman in her youth and got knocked up. Nothing supernatural about that. The real kicker comes when nature decided to be a cruel bitch and kill her baby in the womb.”

Sebastian gave him a confused look. He didn’t really know what Colt was talking about. So Elizabeth had a miscarriage? A still birth? Those things happened sometimes. He failed to see what that had to do with Apollyon.

Noticing his confusion Colt continued. “She was living with her grandfather at the time on that farm when she miscarried. Now that was bad enough. If she was any normal woman living with any normal parents that would have been the end of it. She’d burry the baby, grieve and move on… But like I said she ain’t no normal woman. A laps in sanity caused by a mother’s grief and the love of a father for his daughter… Those two brought something into the world that not even Yoba could love.”

Sebastian was really hoping for the sake of his own sanity that this wasn’t going to turn into an incest story. “What happened?”

Colt shrugged. “Elizabeth was sketchy on the details, but her and her old man used very dark arcane magic to bring that dead baby back to life. From what I understand they somehow managed to reach into the Void and forcibly graft an entity from a world of darkness into a corpse. After the process was complete Elizabeth and her old man apparently heard a name rumbling through the Void, loud enough to slip into our reality; Apollyon.”

“… You really had me going there for a moment. Thought you were going to say something interesting, but I guess you just like telling weird stories.” Colt was kind of creeping him out at this point. All he wanted to do was quickly finish his cigarette and get back inside.”

“Too fanciful for you or something?” Asked Colt. He didn’t seem surprised. Just kind of bored. “Apollyon is another name for Abaddon. The ruler of the abyss and the king of demonic locusts. The destroyer.” He chuckled a little. “Believe me or not but Apollyon is a demon. If you get involved with him anymore than you already are you’ll die or worse.”


	13. Going home part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More shenanigans with Apollyon and Sebastian. Mostly Apollyon. Please kudos and comment for good karma. Enjoy :D

Elizabeth had insisted the pair stay for dinner, but thankfully Apollyon quickly declined the offer. He said they needed to get back to Pelican Town but Sebastian was pretty sure he just didn’t want to stay around his parents any longer. Especially since he asked Sebastian if he wanted to go to any pubs or bars before they left.

Sebastian drove them to the pool hall he and Sam usually went to when they went to into Zuzu together. It wasn’t a dive, but it wasn’t exactly pristine either. Apollyon didn’t seem to mind and made his way over to the bar and got himself a beer. He quickly downed it and got another, repeating the same action.

“… Are you trying to get drunk?” He asked Apollyon as he got his own drink.

Apollyon just chuckled and shook his head. “Look, I didn’t exactly have a fun talk with my mum. Let me have this. Plus I don’t get drunk easily remember? You and your friends got pissed and I was able to walk home and get up at six in the morning.”

“Right…” He didn’t know what to say at this point. He kind of wanted to talk about what Colt had said to him. Try and get some clarification, maybe joke about the absurdity of it all. But it didn’t seem like the right time. “Want to play some pool while we’re here?”

“… Sure. Get a table.”

Sebastian went and got a table near the back of the room. He watched Apollyon get another beer and slowly make his way over to the table. Although Apollyon didn’t seem to get drunk very easily he still didn’t want to worry about him being unable to hold onto him on the way back.

“Maybe you should make that your last one for the moment.”

Apollyon shrugged and set up the pool balls. “I’m not going to get drunk if that’s what you’re worried about. But if you’re that much of a whiny bitch about it I’ll fork out the gold to get a cab back to Pelican Town.”

Sebastian scowled a little as he went to break. “Did your talk with you mum really go that badly?”

“… Yeah. I got some annoying news. It just boils down to things are going to get worse before they get better.” He grabbed a cue and waited for his turn to play.

Being slightly concerned for Apollyon made Sebastian falter a little in his game, but he managed to sink two balls before he messed up and Apollyon took his turn. He would have thought his hand eye coordination would have been slightly off, but he seemed fine. It was kind of strange to say the least. Maybe in a few minutes the alcohol would finally affect him. Just as Apollyon was about to take his shot a hand reached down and swiped the white ball off the table.

“The fuck?” Growled Apollyon as he glared at the man that did it. 

The man in question looked rather normal. Just some average guy with some non-descript hair cut wearing nothing that would make him stand out. Sebastian would have just told him to give back the ball and piss off, however Apollyon seemed to know this person and they seemed to know him.

“Gadreel.” 

“Apollyon. Fancy seeing you out here. Been a few years.”

Apollyon rolled his eyes and pushed Gadreel away. “What the fuck do you want? I’ve had a shit day today and I don’t want to deal with your shit too, okay?”

Gadreel laughed, easily turning his attention to Sebastian. “Hey there. I’m Gadreel. Apollyon and I were in school together for a while. Nice to meet you.” He reached out to shake his hand, and Sebastian would have obliged if Apollyon didn’t swat Gadreel’s hand away with his pool cue. He didn’t seem amused in the slightest. Gadreel just smiled. “I see he still has a bad temper. Some things never change.”

“Gadreel, fuck off.” He growled, baring his teeth in an animalistic way. “I fucking mean it.”

The man just ignored Apollyon’s threats and went back to talking with Sebastian. “You better keep that one on a leash. He’s got a pretty nasty bite.” He looked over at Apollyon and smiled sweetly. “Didn’t you fight the gym teacher back in high school and get expelled?”

“I was changing schools anyway and I was tired of his bullshit.” Growled Apollyon. “Now piss off. You’re annoying us.”

The man sighed a little, but finally relented. “Okay fine, you win Apollyon. Hopefully you’ll be in higher spirits next time.” He took the long way around the table and said something in hushed tones to Apollyon before he left. Whatever he said it seemed to annoy him.

Once he was out of ear shot Apollyon sighed. “Sorry about that. Gadreel was a cocky little fuck in high school and it looks like he still is. He has a way of getting under my skin and pissing me off… If he’s like a regular around here just try and ignore him. He’s an asshole.”

“Huh… Okay.” There seemed to be more to the story but Sebastian didn’t want to probe just at the moment. They continued with the game for a few more minutes before Apollyon put the cue down and quickly finished off his drink. Tonight he’d be giving Shane a run for his money.

“Gonna go take a piss. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Okay…” Sebastian watched closely as Apollyon slipped towards the bathroom, but then quickly ducked out the back door. He had no idea what he was up to.

***

Gadreel. Of all the people in the world it had to be Gadreel. While it was true that the man had been a little shit in high school, he was also a real pain in the ass for Apollyon since he was actually quite an adept magic user. That had made his life a special kind of hell growing up. They had met a few times after school was over for the two of them and it was never pleasant and either of them.

Gadreel had been waiting for Apollyon out in the alley between the pool hall and some pawn broker’s shop. He smiled happily at him with that horribly fake smile that everyone in Zuzu city seemed to have.

“I must admit I didn’t expect to see a demon like you around.” He said. “You kind of just vanished for a while. Were you laying low?”

“Kind of. I went into hiding for a while to get you magic fuckers off my back.” Growled Apollyon. “I had better things to do than to worry about one of you guys jumping down and trying to murder me or kidnap me for some fucked up ritual.”

“Fair enough. And the guy you’re with?”

“He doesn’t know anything. He’s just a guy I know. Leave him alone.”

Gadreel chuckled at that. “Really? He seems like he would be your type, some emo kid drawn to the dark arts. Oh well, doesn’t matter. I’ll just see what he knows after I’ve dealt with you. One more demon off the streets.”

Apollyon growled and pulled the first thing out of his pocket and threw it at him. It happened to be a toothpick, but it still managed to leave a small cut on the other man’s cheek. “Fuck off. I might be a demon but I really don’t give a fuck about what you humans do. I just want to live my life. Now beat it. I have shit to do.” He turned and went to go back into the hall and almost immediately felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Reaching around he pulled out the toothpick he threw at Gadreel.

“You should know better than to turn your back on a magic user, Apollyon.”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t. I’m right behind you.” Apollyon looked over his shoulder just in time to see Gadreel turn around. This gave Apollyon just enough time to spin around and kick him in the head, sending him crashing into the trash. “Psych bitch. I can’t do that shadow trick stuff.”

Gadreel groaned and rubbed his face. “Steel capped boots? Really?”

“Yep.” He pressed his foot into Gadreel’s chest and relished in the realization of how easy it would be for him to just press down with a little bit of force and push his foot all the way through his sternum to crush his spine. It would be easy, but he wasn’t that kind of creature. At least for now. “Now leave me alone Gadreel. I’m not in the mood.”

Gadreel was quiet for a moment, weighing up his options. Thankfully he seemed to know when to back down. “Okay Apollyon. You obviously aren’t as weak as I assumed you were. Guess I’ll have to try harder next time.”

His cocky attitude really pissed Apollyon off. He slowly started to press down harder on Gadreel’s chest, stopping only when he could start to feel the bones bow. “There isn’t going to be a next time. I’m not coming back here after tonight. If I ever see you or any of your other magic hit men I’m not going to hold back. I’ll make you regret trying to kill me.”

“I doubt it. But you do you Polly.”

Apollyon glared at him for a moment and kicked Gadreel in the face, knocking him the fuck out. Satisfied with this, he dusted himself off and went back inside. Sebastian was still inside and by the pool table. He walked over and grabbed his cue. “My turn yet?”

“Sure…” He looked worried. “So you just went to the bathroom when you clearly went out the backdoor? What did you do? Go out the back and beat that Gadreel guy to a pulp or something?”

“Something like that.” He bent over the table and lined up his next shot. It was going to be a little hard but he was going to do it.

“… Seriously? You beat him up?”

“Relax Seb. I just roughed him up a little. I told you his was a shit head, right?” He tried and failed to make the shot. “I wasn’t exactly quiet about my sexual preferences in high school and well, I’m surprised he called me by my name and not fag lord or something along those lines.” Hopefully this lie would be enough to keep Sebastian satisfied for the moment. “We should probably head off soon.”

“Yeah, no shit. He might call the cops or something.” Sebastian quickly grabbed Apollyon by the arm and dragged him out. Not that Apollyon minded too much. It was kind of funny being man handled by a smaller man like this but he couldn’t be bothered to protest. As they left, Apollyon took one last look down the alley to see if Gadreel was going to suddenly come after them. At the moment they seemed good.

On the drive home he wondered if he should continue the way he had been. Not just with Sebastian but with the rest of the town. With his unfortunate magical condition and his increasing violent thoughts he’d probably have to try and distance himself for a while. At least until the magic had run its course like his mum had told him. That wouldn’t be too hard. He kind of memorised everyone’s movements around the town so he could easily avoid them.

After what seemed like a very short amount of time they were back in Pelican Town and Sebastian was pulling up beside the bus. “Well, we’re back.”

“So we are…” He got off and handed his helmet back to Sebastian. “Hey, so in case anyone asks I’m just going to be working on my farm for a while, so you won’t be seeing me in town for a bit.”

“Okay… It wouldn’t have anything to do with what your mum said to you, right?” Sebastian had this strange look on his face that Apollyon couldn’t really tell if he was trying to express concern, distress, or whatever that feeling was after you get food poisoning.

He just smiled and shrugged. “I have some trees I need to clear out and some I need to put tappers on. I’m also planning of building a fruit orchid and getting a barn. I need to plan that stuff out and gather materials… I also want to get a house extension so I actually have a kitchen. That would be nice.”

“Huh, alright…”

“Later Seb. Thanks for the ride.” He turned to walk back to his farm when Sebastian called out to him. 

“Hey, I know your family is kind of weird and stuff, but whatever she said about you to make you feel like shit, it isn’t true you know… Same with Colt. He’s a dick bag. That weirdo said you were an actual demon.”

Apollyon couldn’t help it when a small smile made its way across his face. “I guess even a bastard like him speaks the truth every now and then.” He continued to walk home, not even bothering to see what kind of expression Sebastian has on his face. More than likely he’d be confused.

***

True to his word Apollyon had isolated himself from the rest of the town. Sebastian hadn’t seen him in days and as far as he knew no one else had either. Then again it was kind of difficult since Sebastian didn’t really leave the house until dark, so he could have been out and talking to people.

On one of his many cigarette brakes by the lake, Sebastian couldn’t help but keep glancing back over at the mines. He was hoping to catch sight of the farmer. He had a habit of coming out late at night with a bag of rocks and geods.

On this particular night Sam happened to venture up to the mountains to visit the secluded man. “Yo Seb.” He called as he walked over to him. “You doing okay? Haven’t seen you around lately since you got back from Zuzu.”

Sebastian shrugged and looked back out onto the lake. “I had work to do. Client needed some stuff done in two days at the most. It was good money.”

“Huh, alright.” He stood by Sebastian for a while in silence and let Sebastian enjoy most of his cigarette before talking again. “You took Apollyon with you when you went to the city the other day, right? How did that go?”

“… His parents are weird. They put him on edge.” He would have mentioned the slight sexual tension the two of them shared and the fact Apollyon might have beaten a man to a pulp, but knowing Sam he’d probably blow it all out of proportion. 

Luckily for him Sam seemed to just nod in understanding. “Yeah, he wasn’t a big fan of his folks was he? So how bad were they?”

“It looked like his mum was a psychic that works from home and his step dad is a bag of dicks that out right called him a demon.” He took a long, slow drag. “… It was so bad, we ended up going to that pool hall to drink for a bit and we ran into someone he knew that pissed him off even more… Have you seen him around?”

Sam shrugged. “Seen him a bit. He just runs around not really talking to people that much. Seen him go into the clinic a few times. Not sure what for though.”

He was worried for a few moments, wondering what could possibly be wrong with the farmer. But that worry was quickly killed because Maru would have mentioned something. It was a small town and someone going repeatedly to a place where they normally wouldn’t was always going to raise suspicion and he was sure he would have heard someone say something.

“You going to come to the luau tomorrow?” Asked Sam.

Truth be told Sebastian had forgotten about that. He had more important things to do with his jobs. The luau was boring anyway and he’d have to go out in the sun and interact with people. The weird soup never tasted good to him and the governor was a hack with no tastebuds. 

“Bet Apollyon will be there.” Said Sam.

“Probably.” Maybe he would be. He had no real idea if Apollyon would show since he said he was going to stay on his farm for a few days. He wondered if the farm looked good these days. He hadn’t been in a while and he could only imagine what he had been up to. Maybe he had some kegs or some beehives now?

Sam nudged him a little. “So are you going to go?”

“My mum is gonna make me go anyway. So yeah. I’m gonna end up going.”

“Sweet… Want to hang out at my house after?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”


	14. Luau

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. This chapter is kind of short (compared to other chapters lol) but I hope you all enjoy it. Please kudos and comment. I love hearing feed back :D

For the past few days Apollyon had been working hard on his farm. He had been clearing out trees, rocks, and weeds, he marked out places to plant crops, a fence so his chickens could run around safely, and a few preservative jars and beehives. He had to go into the mines several times to try and find all the materials he needed for these things. 

While he was there he found a lot of gemstones and just cool things in general. With the money he had made from that he was able to afford Robin’s house extension. Now he’d be able to have a damn kitchen, but he’d be talking to her about it after the luau.

He sat out on his porch and bandaged up his hands, sighing a little when the bandages around his knuckles started to darken anyway. He’d gotten several supplies from the clinic before he went to the mines in his search for ore and to relieve his stress. Killing those monsters had been fun for him and he’d been a lot calmer than he had been last time he went in there.

He wanted to go back again and kill something else, but not today. It actually was the luau and Apollyon had been tasked with bringing something, so he had decided to bring in some really good looking grapes he had found on his way home the previous night. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was for since Goblin decided to eat the damn note before he could finish reading it.

Apollyon took the grapes down to the beach. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and having a good time. It made him feel like crap really. He wasn’t sure way though. Everyone being happy was a good thing. This was what he wanted. He wanted to be a part of this. He didn’t want to isolate himself like in the city.

He sighed a little and tossed the grapes into the giant soup pot Marine was stirring. She seemed okay with him doing that so he could only assume he did the right thing. He poured a little punch into a cup and made his way to the pier. Since everyone was having fun on the beach he could afford to just sit away from everyone and enjoy the quiet.

The bench beside Willy’s shop was far enough away from everyone and gave Apollyon a moment to collect his thoughts. The salt from the sea stung the small nicks and cuts on his hands that he didn’t bother to bandage earlier. He exhaled sharply through his nose as he started to flick at his nails. Despite them growing back they still felt thin and flimsy.

“Thought I saw you!” Called Emily as she happily skipped over to him. She sat down on the bench and smiled at him. “Been a while since I’ve seen you around. What have you been up to?”

“Nothing much. Just farming stuff mostly. I can’t really say much else.” He flicked at his nail a little more, flinching slightly when a small part of it chipped and peeled. “Ow…”

She sighed a little and gently placed her hand on his arm. “Hey, you shouldn’t over work yourself. Why don’t you come and dance with me? It’ll take your mind of things for a while.”

He thought for a moment and reluctantly let Emily drag him over to the dance floor where Robin and Demetrius were already dancing with each other. Robin smiled at Apollyon and gave him a small nod of acknowledgement and he nodded back.

Emily held Apollyon’s hands and playfully swung them in time with the music. “Come on. Just let your body move to the music. Let the rhythm take control and dance like no one’s watching you.”

Apollyon smiled a little at her enthusiasm and attempted to dance along with her. He envied how easy her movements were and hoe fluid her motions were. Her positivity and energy was stunning. He could see why people could be drawn in and captivated by her. At the same time it hurt to be around such positivity. Regardless he stayed and danced with her as best he could. He felt stupid though.

***

Sebastian couldn’t stop the scowl on his face from forming. Apollon had walked right past him, didn’t even acknowledge him, and walked right past him again with Emily to dance. Yoba he felt jealous, but damn it he wasn’t entirely sure why. 

Suddenly Abby was at his side, smirking like a smug bastard. “My oh my. Why are you so mad? Wanna dance with the farmer or something?”

“Shut up Abby.” He mumbled. He quickly took out a cigarette and lit it. A hit of nicotine was just what he needed. “I just don’t want to be here.”

“Which is why you’ve been watching the farmer since they came onto the beach?”

“… Have you been watching me or something?” Attempting to deflect was hard.

She sighed a little and shook her head. “Seb, it’s obvious you like him and I think it’s obvious Emily probably has a thing for him too. Let’s face it, Emily is way more outgoing then you are. If she feels a connection she’s going to ask him out before you do. Then what are you going to do?”

“… I don’t know.” He frowned and took another drag. “Look, he hasn’t shown much interest in me and I know I haven’t been trying to get with him so I probably don’t have a chance.” Abby groaned a little and marched away. Sebastian hoped that she was just going to go and eat something, but he felt his blood run cold when he saw her making her way onto the dance floor, towards Apollyon and Emily.

“Yo Apollyon! Got a favour to ask you.”

“Yes?”

Sebastian quickly raced over to Abby and grabbed her by the arm. “Just leave it Abby. Seriously.”

A sly smile made its way onto Apollyon’s lips. “You asking for something on Bastian’s behalf Abs?”

“Yeah, Seb’s been interested in the secret forest. But there’s like slimes and stuff in there. Want to take him?”

“…” Sebastian wanted to strangle Abby right then and there. He did not appreciate her doing this. Especially infront of Emily. She’d probably think it was a date or something stupid like that, which was what Abby was trying to turn this into.

Apollyon looked surprised for a moment, but ended up smiling anyway. “Sure, it’s a date.”

Much to Sebastian’s distain, both the girls gasped at that statement. “It’s not a date… Please don’t say stupid things.” He felt like Apollyon was going to just tease the fuck out of him now or some bullshit for the rest of their natural lives. If that was the case he was going to lock himself in his basement.

He laughed. “Nah, my whole M.O is saying stupid bullshit.” He gave Sebastian a rather cheeky look. “But babe we can call it whatever you want if you don’t want to call it a date.”

Emily practically squealed. “I can’t believe you two are going to go on a date.”

“My parents are right there Emily.” Hissed Sebastian. He felt like he was going to die at this point. He was not going to come out to his parents via this bullshit. Hell he wasn’t going to come out to Emily like this either.

Surprisingly it was Apollyon that quickly came to his rescue. “We’re not going to go on a date Emily. That’s just a little too gay for Sebastian.”

Emily looked confused for a moment before laughing to herself. “Right, I keep forgetting people aren’t just automatically bisexual by default. But I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun. The Secret woods is really nice. Just watch out for bears.”

“Will do Emily.” Apollyon then, being the slick and ever so confusing bastard that he was, ever so kindly offered his hands to both Abby and Emily. “Now which of you lovely ladies would like to dance with me?”

Abby grinned and took his hand. “Why the hell not?”

Emily giggled and too his other hand. “We were already in the middle of dancing together weren’t we?”

“Wow, two fine young ladies at once?” Asked Apollyon in fake shock. “It’s been a few months so I might be a little rusty. Be gentle with me ladies.”

Sebastian felt a heat start to rise in his face and he quickly got off the dance floor. Every time he didn’t think his crush was as strong as it was towards Apollyon he would do something that would make him squirm and feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Yoba he hated feeling like this.

***

Apollyon had no idea what he was doing. Yoba he just started running his damn mouth when Abby was talking about taking Sebastian to the secret woods. He was damn sure Abby was trying to play match maker at this point. He was just running his mouth to try and get out of that situation, but had just made it worse.

He was at home now, the luau was apparently a success according to the governor and the mayor. He thought it was kind of dumb to see how well a town was going by how tasty a soup was, but whatever. Government was weird.

He flicked at his nail some more and watched some of it chip off. He was going to have to see Harvey about this. He felt like he was doing to start to fall apart, or was falling apart at this point. He didn’t like how he acting now. Apollyon liked being more reserved and shy. Just talking without thinking and making snide, suggestive comments weren’t something he wanted to do anymore. That was him when he was a dumb teen. 

Most troubling of all to him was his more rampant perverted thought process these days. Yoba it wasn’t just towards Sebastian anymore with small lingering thoughts of how nice his ass looked in those jeans. He caught himself sneaking glances at Abigail and Emily’s breasts as they were dancing with him and wondering how soft they would feel if he squeezed them. He felt disgusted with himself thinking those kind of things. He assumed it was normal to think someone had nice tits or a nice ass, but it was kind of creepy to think too much about it.

While he stressed himself about these thoughts Morgana happily swooped down on her broom and grinned down at him. “Hey there demon boy. Kill anyone yet? Besides cave monsters?”

Apollyon jumped a little and glared up at her. “Take back whatever the fuck you did to me. I don’t want to wait it out. I want it gone.”

She shrugged, safe in the knowledge that she was out of his reach on her broom. “Come on, you have to admit humanity’s social norms are stupid and stifling. You aren’t really human. You’re just wearing human skin. Why don’t you just shed it and be you?”

“I like being human you green bitch!” He snapped. His snarky and venomous side was quickly coming out again. “I was raised as a human and I am going to live as one. I don’t give a fuck what I was supposed to be. You think your magic is going to break me? Fuck you!”

Morgana looked offended for a moment, but quickly grinned. This was obviously the reaction she was after. “Well don’t you sound all mean and grumpy?”

“Why the hell do you even care?! I hardly know you! What could you possibly get out of this?”

She rolled her eyes. “Well there is a lot I can actually get out of this thank you very much. But you wouldn’t understand much of it since your mind is too small since you were raised human. To put it in the simplest terms; the valley is really good. Full of really good things. Nothing can be this good for so long. People that study the dark arcane arts like myself balance things out.”

“… What?”

Morgana pulled a face that showed her complete distain for his intelligence. “Okay, simpler terms… Light magic, good. Good things happen. Stardew valley, too much light magic. Too many good things. People get suspicious. People find out magic. People think it solves all problems. People get mad when it does. World implodes. Dark magic, evil. Dark magic makes bad things happen. Bad things happen to balance out the good things. People keep on living their simple lives.”

“… Light and dark magic are things?”

“No you idiot. Magic is just magic but depending on how you use it can affect the outcome. Mainly through ritualistic chanting and what not. Morons like you that don’t understand this concept so the simplistic idea of good and bad have to exist.” She crossed her arms and huffed dramatically. “I feel like I’m talking to some Yoba extremist nut job…”

Apollyon felt like he was talking to a complete wack job. Then again she was a witch so she probably was a little off her rocker. “And cursing me does what for you and your weird ulterior motive?”

She sighed and shook her head before she cracked her knuckles. “Alright… Long and short of it, Pelican Town is way too damn wholesome and nice and good things keep happening. It’s time to shake things up with you. Time for you to cause some bad shit.”

“… No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“… Yeah, I’m going inside now. Don’t curse my melons.”

“Hey! Don’t you walk away you snippy little demon kid!”

Apollyon rolled his eyes. “Suck my taint you old bitch. I got better things to do then listen to you talking about all your mystical bullshit. Go fuck yourself with a rusty AIDS infected di-” His rant was quickly cut short when something heavy and large struck him in the back of the head, easily knocking him to the ground and knocking him out. Last thing he heard before he completely passed out was Morgana cackling as she flew away.


	15. Painkiller

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment if you did. I appreciate all feedback. *finger guns* :D

Apollyon had woken up with a raging headache the next day after the witch belted him in the back of the head. But regardless, today was going to be a mining day. He had a good feeling that he was going to complete the mining bundle today once he grabbed a fire quartz. 

He had made it to floor eight five and was hoping to get to floor ninety by the end of the day. The second he stepped out of the elevator he encountered a red slime. With a few frantic slashes of his sword the slime was unstable enough to turn to mush. Much to his surprise this one seemed to have swallowed a diamond. Now it was his. He quickly stuffed it into his bag and continued on.

Apart from finding the ever elusive fire quartz, the Adventurer’s Guild, AKA Marlon and Gil, had tasked him with slaying some monsters. He was going to try and go about slaying a few shadow brutes. He was doing an alright job at it too. He’d slayed about ten so far.

He rounded a corner and almost immediately got shot in the face with a fireball. These things were horrible. Huge, round, flying fleshy masses that hovered over rock clusters and spat fireballs. When he had asked Marlon what on earth they were he had called the Squid Kids. They neither looked like kids nor looked anything like squids in his own opinion.

It spat another fireball at him, but Apollyon managed to dodge it and puncture the hovering beast, popping it in midair. Though the Squid kid didn’t leave anything interesting behind he still felt satisfied whenever one of those bloated pimples popped. The lava caves smelt enough like burning without them spitting fire. Smells of burning, sulfur and something like… pork?

He hadn’t smelt that in the caves before. Confused, Apollyon tried to follow the smell and ended up walking around in circles for a good five minutes before he realized where the smell was coming from. It was him. More specifically his leg. The damn Squid Kid’s fireball must have bounced off the wall and hit him and burnt a sizable hole in the side of his pants, painting a fair amount of his leg in third degree burns.

Now while it was alarming that he had such a huge burn on his leg, the bigger issue for Apollyon was that he couldn’t feel it. No pain, no nothing. He cautiously poked it, expecting to feel a sting or something but all he felt was the pressure of his finger touching against the charred muscle.

“What the fuck?” Apollyon could feel his chest tightening and could just see the cracks starting to appear out of the corner of his eyes. “This… this has to be some kind of sick joke. Right? How the hell? What the hell?”

He was shaking a little and knew he had to go to the clinic, but he needed to test this out. He quickly found another mine shaft and climbed down it. On the next level he quickly found a Shadow Brute wandering around minding its own business. At least it would be until it saw him. These things just seemed to love to charge at him as soon as they saw him.

This one was no different. The second it saw him it charged as him and landed a punch right to his guts. While it winded him, it didn’t actually hurt. Apollyon put up no resistance as the monster continued to attack him. He would feel each blow but it didn’t actually hurt. There was no pain to the impact.

He could see the cracks getting bigger once again as a pained laugh made its way out his throat. The sudden laughter made the Shadow Brute pause in its attack and looked at him, very confused. Hell, even Apollyon wasn’t too sure why he was laughing. The situation he was in was kind of horrific and he knew it.

“I can’t feel pain… I can’t feel pain!” He lunged at the Shadow Brute and started to pummel the thing as best he could with his hands. Screw the sword. He didn’t need it if he couldn’t feel it. He heard his knuckled crack and saw his skin get bloodied despite how squishy Shadow Brutes actually were. With one strong blow to its face it evaporated with a mournful whine and his fist came into contact with a heavy copper bar.

With a small laugh, Apollyon picked up the copper bar and slowly walked back to the elevator. He really needed to go to the clinic. Harvey and Maru were going to fuss over him when he got there.

***

Sure enough the second he walked into the clinic looking like a bloody mess Maru and Harvey took him into the back room and started to treat his most obvious injury, his burn. They laid him on his stomach on one of the clinic beds and stripped him of his pants to make sure they could get to all of the burnt skin. At least he got to keep his underwear.

“How on earth did you get burnt that badly?” Asked Maru. “Did you stand too close to a furnace or something?”

“Something like that…” Muttered Apollyon. Whatever ointment they were putting on his burn felt cold. “… Hey, you two, is it normal for burns to not hurt?”

Harvey sighed a little as he started to gather clean bandages. “It’s not uncommon for third degree burns to not hurt at all because of nerve damage. Do you believe you suffered nerve damage?”

“Maybe… Can I talk to you privately for a bit doc? Once you two are done fixing me up.”

“Of course.” Once the two of them were done tending to the burn and the wounds on his hands Maru left and Harvey took a seat by him. He looked rather concerned. “You know I’ll need you to come in to get that redressed every day. Technically you should be staying here for a few days to make sure it doesn’t get infected… I’ll put you on a broad spectrum antibiotic just in case.”

Apollyon nodded a little and readjusted himself slightly. “Cool… So about the thing I wanted to talk to you about…”

“Ah yes. What can I help you with?”

“… I can’t feel pain, at all.”

Harvey looked confused for a moment. “I see, so how long has this been going on? Can you feel temperatures? Have you been sweating less or not at all?”

“No to the last two and since this morning… If it helps I got hit in the back of the head last night.”

“… I see. Mind if I do a quick examination?”

“Feel free.” He relaxed a little as Harvey checked his hands and looked at his feet. He then got a comb and started to brush through his hair which felt weird to him. “What are you doing?”

“Just making sure you don’t have CIPA. Of course it’s a genetic disease that you can’t just randomly catch, but I just want to make sure and rule it out as soon as possible. There are a few obvious physical factors besides not being able to feel pain like not being able to feel the temperature and not being able to sweat.”

“… Find anything?”

“Just a small nick on the back of your head. It doesn’t look too severe… Would you be alright with possibly getting an MRI? We obviously don’t have one here, but I can get you referred to one at Zuzu Central, or even Westfern private if your health fund can cover that.”

Apollyon weighed up his options for a bit before shaking his head. “Nah, I’ll just wait a bit. If I’m still not feeling any pain tomorrow I’ll come back and get booked in for one of those.” Despite Harvey’s protests Apollyon made his exit as quickly as physically possible, pulling on his tattered pants and almost falling over twice as he did so.

He hoped he had a pair of loose shorts he could wear for a few days while his leg properly scabbed over. He’d had worse burns when he was growing up. Some of them self-inflicted, also located on his leg. He could still vaguely remember the circumstances behind some of it too.

***

It was a crisp Spring evening when Colt kicked Apollyon out of the house again after school. “Come back before six.” He muttered. “Your mum’s gonna be home late but she wants you home for dinner. Till then I don’t want to see your ugly mug.”

Apollyon was more than happy to leave and hang out in the park two blocks away. It was quiet and no one gave a shit about him. He was just some miserable and pissed off looking sixteen year old, so it automatically meant all adults were terrified of his existence.

He found some quiet corner of the park away from prying eyes and took a few slightly bent cigarettes out of his pocket. He had stolen them from Colt. The day after he got a new pack he would swipe one or two. He never really seemed to notice. One time he almost did, but he got very lucky. He didn’t have a lighter but he did have a small flint fire starter. Lighting the cigarette had been a challenge but he still managed to do it.

He wasn’t a big smoker, but he liked to take things from Colt and fuck them up somehow. He only put up with him because he made his mum happy. Sure she knew some of the shit the older man gave him and she rightly reprimanded him for it when he did but she was still madly in love with him. He couldn’t fault her for that.

Apollyon took a rather long drag and lightly flicked the end, flinching ever so slightly when the hot ash singed his knee. He flicked the ash away and watched the red marks fade away almost as quickly as it appeared.

“…”

A morbid curiosity quickly took hold within his mind and he pressed the burning cigarette against his knee. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as he had expected it to. Sure there was some pain but not enough to make him flinch or cry out. It was strange to him. So he lit it and did it again, and again, and again. He ended up making a smiley face on his leg and watched with amusement as the burns healed unnaturally quickly into nothingness.

Suddenly a hand gripped his shoulder with a vice like grip and a man growled at him. “There you are you little fuck.” Growled Colt. “What the fuck are you doing? Burning yourself? With fags you stole from me? You fucking shit!”

“Piss off Colt.” Growled Apollyon. “Why are you acting like you give a fuck anyway? You fucking hate me and wouldn’t give a shit if I walked out the door and never fucking came back! Piss off!”

Colt pulled Apollyon to his feet and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him against the nearest tree. “Now you listen here you disrespectful fuck, you’re right. I don’t give a flying fuck if you took two steps outside and got shot in the head, but you and me, we have one thing in common.”

“Bull fucking shit.”

“Elizabeth.” He snarled. “We both love her and want her to be happy. Unfortunately she’s not happy unless she knows you’re alive and well, and she’s easily upset when I’m not around. Suck it up and stop being a little bitch.” He let Apollyon go and swiped the cigarettes out of his hand, stuffing them back into his own pocket. “She’ll be pissed if she finds out you’ve been smoking these.”

“Whatever…”

Colt rolled his eyes and shoved Apollyon in the direction of home. “Come on. Move your dumb ass. Elizabeth’s making spaghetti and wants to eat as a family.”

Apollyon rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Fuck off. I’m just doing this for mum. Not for you.”

***

He chuckled a bit at the memory. Although Colt had roughed him around a little he was nowhere near as bad as he could have been. Then again he couldn’t help but recall that he didn’t feel much pain back then either. Was this part of Morgana’s spell or was there actually something medically wrong with him? He wasn’t sure.

He wandered onto his farm and checked his corn. Tomorrow it would be ready to harvest. Still, he broke off one and bit into it. It tasted alright. But he never really cared too much for corn anyway. Hopefully someone was going to like it.

“What’s tried to eat your ass?”

Apollyon glanced over his shoulder, happy to see Shane was approaching him. “A bear.”

“Seriously?”

“Nah, I got burnt. What’s up?” He hadn’t seen Shane in ages, but Apollyon had to admit he was looking better. He was slouching less and didn’t look nearly as tired as before. Maybe he was doing really well with that councilor Harvey had got him to see in Zuzu? He was really proud of him.

“Marnie asked me to drop off some hay.” He gestured to the hay he was carrying. 

Apollon felt weird for not noticing that before. “Dump it in the silo over there.”

Shane nodded and did ad he was told. “So, you have a chicken coop now. Got any chickens?”

“Ah, not yet. I want to make one more mayonnaise machine before I get a chicken… Gonna name it Butter.”

“Butter?”

“Yeah. You know, butter chicken.”

Shane chuckled a little and rolled his eyes. “You planning on eating them?”

“Maybe when they can’t lay eggs anymore.” Noticing the slightly horrified look of Shane’s face Apollyon quickly back peddled. “I’m joking. When I have enough gold I’ll get a chicken. Don’t you worry.”

“Okay… You gonna change pants or something?”

Apollyon looked down at his bandaged leg and shrugged. “Probably should. I’m pretty sure I have shorts somewhere. If not, I am gonna go and kilt it up. I’m pretty sure I have a tartan table cloth somewhere I can use…” He walked into his house and started to look through his clothes.

Shane followed him in and let out a low whistle. “Nice. Your shit shack now has a kitchen.”

“Yeah, Robin was good to me and fixed it all up.” He pulled out a pair of board shorts. They were bright blue and had a huge pink flamingo printed down one side. Good enough. He shimmied out of his pants and pulled on his shorts. “Feel free to get a drink out of the fridge. I don’t have beer, but I have some soda water and lemonade.”

“Thanks.”

Apollyon smiled a little and sat on the couch. Although he couldn’t feel pain he managed to sit in a way that wouldn’t put pressure on his wound. “So what’s up? How’s everything going for you?”

“Pretty good.” Shane sat on the couch by him and cracked open a can of lemonade. “Jas has been really excited about the dance of the Moonlight Jellies happening at the end of the month.”

“… The what now?”

Shane shrugged. “This thing where a bunch of jellyfish drift along the South coast at the end of each Summer. They glow and stuff. The kids really like that.”

Apollyon smiled a little. “I love bioluminescent stuff… Did you know there’s a species of jellyfish that never developed stingers and live in this huge landlocked lagoon? It’s the only place in the world you can go swimming with jellyfish. It’s neat.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Yeah… So this is a huge town event thing?”

“Yeah, pretty much everyone goes to see it. Jas thinks it’s magical.”

Apollyon smiled a little at how much Shane was talking about Jas. He was glad he was taking more of an interest in her life now. Not being hung over on weekends would help when it came to paying attention to her. She deserved someone to look up to that didn’t drink all the time. Sure she did have Marnie, but Shane was meant to be her guardian.

“Guess I’ll check it out this year.” Said Apollyon quietly. “After that it’s just gonna be me preparing for the fall and then winter… Fuck there’s nothing to do in winter but mining and fishing…”

Shane chuckled at that. “You do that.”


	16. Dance of the Moonlight Jellies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I know I update fairly regularly and quickly with like at least 2 chapters a week, but this week I couldn't because my lovely girlfriend came down from out of state to visit me (long distance sucks but hey the internet makes things easier). Anyway, ya'll are probably not interested in that but hey I wanted to explain anyway... Enjoy the chapter and to kudos and comment :D

The twenty eighth quickly rolled around quickly and Apollyon started to notice a few things he felt were rather important; the Junimos were running around and acting more excited, Sebastian hadn’t approached him to go to the secret woods which was leading him to think that Abby was pulling his leg before, he still couldn’t feel any pain at all, and he astonished Harvey and Maru with how quickly his burn was healing. It was just a scar now. Even then that would eventually vanish.

The night air had a slight chilling bite to it, which Apollyon did enjoy. He liked the cooler months but that meant he probably wouldn’t be wearing shorts anymore. Which sucked because he was really starting to get used to wearing his board shorts everywhere he went.

By the time he got to the beach everyone was already there enjoying the night. He felt weird seeing so many happy people just enjoying their time, though it really shouldn’t have been. Every time the town had a festival everyone came together to celebrate it. 

Deciding it was best to stay away from them for the time being, Apollyon stayed near the tree line. Much to his surprise he managed to find the Wizard. He too seemed surprised that Apollyon could see him.

“Ah, you there… hello.”

Apollyon nodded a little. “Hey… So you come down to this thing too?”

“Of course.” Said the Wizard. “I am here to observe the Lunaloos… or ‘Moonlight Jellies’, as you call them. They possess an unusually potent magical aura for an aquatic life form.” 

“… Right. I’ll leave it to you then.”

“… Before you go I must ask you a question.” Called the Wizard. “Has Morgana paid you anymore visits lately? I suspect your injury is part of her doing.”

Apollyon sigh a little and shrugged. “Look, she did but getting burned was my fault… I just have to let whatever magic she cast on me work its way out. I’ll be fine.”

“And your condition makes it hard for you to feel pain or something?” He asked. He seemed interested in Apollyon’s condition. Apollyon was just glad he wasn’t trying to kill him again. He was going to be holding that against the Wizard for the rest of the year.

“I can’t feel pain anymore.” Said Apollyon calmly. “Guess with all the bullshit that’s happened to me it’s just normal… Yoba I don’t even really know what’s happening to me anymore.”

The Wizard nodded a little. He didn’t look very pleased with that explanation. “I see… Enjoy the rest of your night.”

“Thanks.” He wandered around the beach a little longer, watching all the happy people enjoying their time together. It made him smile, but for some reason it still brought about a sense of unease to him. He didn’t like it. Maybe he should have taken up Harvey’s offer and gone to see someone? At least for whatever emotional issues he obviously had.

He walked over to the pier, instantly seeing Sam standing right at the end with his bright blond hair. Sebastian and Abby were there too. He smiled a little to himself, he hadn’t seen them all together in a little while. Tonight was as good a time as any.

***

Sebastian rather liked the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies. It was late at night, so he was fully awake, kind of eerie, and a little strange. It was one of the few events no one needed to remind him of beforehand. He actually ended up walking down a little early today to hang out with Sam and his little brother Vincent who were enjoying the last warm day of the year.

As soon as dusk started to settle in Abby had wandered down and so did Jodie with some snacks for Vincent. It gave the trio the opportunity to find a good spot to watch the jellies. Once they were isolated from the rest of the people wandering around on the beach Abby quickly started probing Sebastian with questions.

“Did you go to the secret woods with Apollyon yet?” She asked.

Sam raised an eyebrow. “You two went to the secret woods?”

“We didn’t.” Muttered Sebastian. He quickly lit a cigarette and took a few quick puffs. “Abby tried and failed to set us up on a date. I am far too busy to think about that kind of stuff right now.”

Abby scoffed at the notion. “So if I went onto your computer and looked up your history I wouldn’t see gay farm related porn?”

“Nope, because I set my computer up to automatically delete certain sites for just that reason.” He didn’t, but he didn’t need Abby or anyone else snooping around his computer to try and find out his weird fetishes and kinks.

“So you have been looking at farm related porn and not of the lesbian variety?” Asked Abby before pulling a dismissive face. “Actually, never mind. I don’t want to know. Point is, I set up a perfectly good date for those two and Sebby hasn’t taken the bait.”

“And Apollyon hasn’t asked me out either.” Reminded Sebastian. “I’m not the one at fault here.

Sam shrugged. “Probably because his leg’s all fucked up.” The other two looked confused so Sam elaborated. “Didn’t you guys know? He has like third degree burns on his leg. The other day I went to the clinic to pick up some hay fever meds since we had like one left, and Apollyon walked out of the back room with his leg all bandaged up. I asked him what was wrong and he said a monster burnt his ass while he was mining… Think he said he had like third degree burns or something.”

Sebastian was shocked to hear that. No one had told him that Apollyon had gotten hurt again. But why would they? He hadn’t really talked to anyone much over the past few days. He practically buried himself in his work after the luau.

Surprisingly Abby didn’t seem surprised, but annoyed. “So I guess that means he probably isn’t going to turn up for this huh? Probably at home resting… And here I was going to put another Abby plan into action…”

“Sebastian could always go over and see if he needs any help.” Suggested Sam.

Abby’s eyes began to shine with excitement. “Yes! Perfect scenario! Our young, poor, helpless farmer needs the help of a young man to tend to his farm, tend to his injuries, and tend to his every physical need…”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Now that sounds like the start of a porno. A terrible porno.”

“Well it’s either that or the whole ‘pizza guy delivering a meat lover pizza with a thick crust and extra sausage’ scenario, but even I don’t think you’d lower yourself to that.” Said Abby.

Sam chuckled a little at that. “Have you seen that gif of the guy in that one porno that does that? Like he opens the pizza box and there’s his dick and the porn actress looks so disappointed that he ruined the pizza?”

“You sent that to us in the group chat.” Said Abby. “We memed it for a while.”

As his friends talked about memes and reaction gifs only they would understand his thoughts were drawn to the farmer. Despite his best efforts as of late he was starting to think more and more about the other man. He mostly blamed Abby and Sam for this since they kept talking about him.

But he couldn’t help but vividly imagine Apollyon being stuck in bed being all vulnerable. And since his ass was burnt he’d probably have to be lying around in his underwear or no underwear at all. “…” He could feel a blush quickly racing across his face. He felt dumb that just the thought of Apollyon naked could make him blush, yet his actual internet history was full of things that would make his friends look at him with disappointment. 

Either way he still couldn’t stop the mildly erotic thoughts about Apollyon. He had a feeling that the farmer might have entered his dreams more than once, but he never really remembered his dreams too well. Something he was kind of grateful for. If he did remember them he would probably never be able to look Apollyon in the face again.

Speaking of Apollyon, the man was happily walking down to see them. Despite Sam saying they were injured they didn’t seem to have any problem walking on their leg, which Sebastian found off if he had third degree burns on his leg. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as he had made it out to be?

“Hey guys.” He called. “It’s been a while huh?”

Abby perked right up when she saw him. “Apollyon! Thought you weren’t gonna show up. Sam said you fucked up your leg.”

He looked down at his bandaged leg and shrugged. “Can’t help it if monsters want to eat my ass.”

“Thought you said it was burnt?” Questioned Sam.

“These monsters aren’t animals Sammy.” Scolded Apollyon in a playful manner. “They like to cook their meat before they eat it. Those monsters were going to eat my ass, they just needed to cook it first.”

Abby chuckled and nudged Sam. “Yeah Sam. Some monsters like their human butts well done before eating them. So does it still hurt?”

Apollyon shook his head, still looking down at his leg. “Well, I have a high pain tolerance so this is fine. In hindsight it’s probably the least messed up thing that’s happened to me.”

“What’s the most messed up thing?” Asked Sam.

The farmer thought for a moment. “Possibly the time I got hit by a bus and my eye popped out of its socket. Sure I popped that sucker back in but it fucked up my balance for a while.”

Sebastian had no idea if Apollyon was being serious or not. Deciding he didn’t really have much to contribute to the conversation he walked to the edge of the pier and let Abby and Sam talk to Apollyon. After the mildly erotic thoughts he had about the other he felt like he needed a little time to himself to calm down slightly.

He wasn’t too sure how long he stood there alone but all too soon Apollyon was standing next to him with his hands in his jacket pockets. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“So I’m guessing you didn’t want to go to the secret woods with me?”

“Not really.”

“Shame. I was looking forward to it.”

He glanced over at Apollyon. He didn’t look like he was trying to make fun of him. He looked genuinely sincere, but Sebastian wasn’t going to suddenly swoon for this guy. No sir. Not now. “Oh.” 

Apollyon chuckled a little. “Oh? That’s all you got to say about it?”

“Yep.” He was doing his best to keep his eyes focused on the water. “… So did your eye really pop out?”

“Yep. High school senior year.” Apollyon let out a long, slow sigh. “I got hit by a bus and fractured my frontal and zygomatic bones around my left eye socket. It gave my eye just enough wriggle room to fly free. Scary shit but it wasn’t like my optical nerve was damaged so no harm no foul.”

“Huh…”

“Yeah…” He shifted his balance a little. “I heard Vincent saying he was going to see the rare green jelly tonight. Think we’ll see it too?”

Sebastian shrugged. “Maybe. Anything is possible in this world.”

Apollyon chuckled a little. “Yeah well, almost anything.”

Sebastian was about to ask him what he meant when Lewis called out to everyone. “Alright everyone! I’m going to launch the boat!” Sebastian watched as he placed the wooden boat his mum had made onto the water. He sent a small paper lantern on top of it and carefully pushed it out into the sea.

Once the boat drifted out far enough that it was just a tiny speck of light in the darkness, the jellies started to slowly drift in. It was slow at first, one or two small glowing objects drifting close and illuminating the ocean. Within a minute the whole place was teaming with a bloom of them. Bloom being the ‘scientifically accurate name for a group of jellyfish’ as Demetrius would say.

“Wow… It’s beautiful…”

Sebastian took a chance and looked over at Apollyon. The young man was completely taken in by the natural bioluminescent glow of the jellies. The way the light danced across his face gave Apollyon an otherworldly look. It made his heart flutter a little. He immediately scolded himself for doing that.

“Is that a green jelly?” Asked Abby. 

“I wanna see it!” Called Vincent.

“Hey be careful Vincent! Watch where you’re running!” Called Jodie.

The next few seconds happened so fast it was almost a blur. Sebastian felt something heavy bumping against his back legs. Since he was standing right by the edge he started falling face first into the water, but instead of getting a face full of stinging tentacles he felt someone grab his wrist and swing him around back onto the pier. He landed on some rope, groaning a little as he heard a huge splash.

“Holy shit!” Screamed Abby. “Apollyon fell in! He fell in!”

“Willy! We need the life saver!” Yelled Sam.

Sebastian watched in stunned shock as Willy ran over and chucked the life saver into the water. Apollyon grabbed it and Willy with the help of Sam managed to drag Apollyon out and onto the beach. He watched as Harvey went over to him and started providing some basic first aid while talking to Maru. From what he knew of the jellies that migrated along the south coast they weren’t deadly and their stings weren’t going to kill him, but they really, really hurt.

He looked down at his arm, the one Apollyon must have grabbed to swing him out of harm’s way. He felt his heart flutter again at this grand gesture. It was getting harder and harder for Sebastian to deny he had feelings for him now.

Abby grabbed his arm. “Hey, you okay?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Good, let’s go.” She pulled him towards the beach where Apollyon was laying.

He wasn’t screaming or writhing in pain. He just seemed like he was in shock as Maru and Harvey were carefully removing any lingering tentacles with tweezers while Willy was pouring vinegar on his stings. 

“You’re alright lad.” Said Willy. “Keeping a brave face like that, you’re a brave lad. You’re doing amazing… We need more vinegar.”

“I’ll be back in a moment!” Called Emily as she quickly ran back to town, quickly running past Gus and grabbing the keys to the saloon along the way.

Vincent was crying into Jodie’s shirt, very distressed about the whole thing. He was blubbering and saying sorry over and over again. It seemed as though Vincent accidently pushed into him and started off the whole chain of events in the first place.

Sebastian shuffled forward a little and looked down at Apollyon. Dark, angry red and purple lightning marks covered his arms, hands, legs and part of his face and neck. He had no idea how Apollyon wasn’t crying or at least flinching. He just seemed board now. Unamused by all of this. Sebastian’s felt his stomach twist in uncomfortable knots.

Harvey looked over at Lewis. “It’s important that we get him into warm water as soon as possible. Can we please take him to your home?”

“Of course. Let’s get going.”

***

Apollyon didn’t really registered too much about what had and was happening to him. He just acted on instinct when he saw Sebastian falling. He just felt that swinging him around was a safer bet than just trying to pull him back for some stupid reason. Getting stung by the jellies didn’t hurt, it just felt strange, like getting tangled in long thin hair.

The second he got pulled out he didn’t really know how to react while people fussed over him, pulling off tentacles still stuck to his skin and pouring vinegar all over his body. Now he was carted off to mayor Lewis’s house and dumped into his bathtub. He hardly even realized he was halfway through getting undressed while in the tub until his board shorts were halfway down his legs.

“… What was I doing?”

He heard a knock at the bathroom door. “Apollyon? Are you in the bath yet?” Called Harvey. “Lewis wants to put your clothes in the dryer and I want to check your stings.”

“… Right.” Apollyon quickly took off the rest of his clothes and sat in the tub. “Come in.”

Harvey quickly came in to get Apollyon’s clothes before giving them to Lewis and coming back. He brought a chair in with him and sat by the bathtub. “I’m just going to quickly examine you and leave you to soak for about forty minutes. Can you let me see your arm?”

Apollyon sighed a little and let Harvey looked at his sting covered arm. He hated it. The marks were ugly and gross and looked like his body was covered in cracks. He hated it. Now he looked like he was falling apart. He’d have to wear long sleeves or something similar until the marks were gone. He was going to eventually end up having a break down if he kept having to see those ugly lines.

“Can you still not feel pain?”

“I didn’t feel a thing.” He said quietly. “Not a damn thing.”

“… This really isn’t good.” Muttered Harvey. “You really need to see a neurologist. Even if it isn’t something specifically wrong with your brain there could be something wrong with your nervous system.”

“Whatever you say doc.” That sounded more sarcastic than he meant it to.

“This is serious Apollyon.” Harvey didn’t sound mad, he actually sounded concerned. That was something he wasn’t used to doctors being towards him. Small town clinics were very different to doctors in the city. “If you can’t feel pain you’re going to end up really damaging yourself. You’ve already been burnt and you have lots of small injuries just from doing maintenance on your farm.”

Apollyon shrugged. “I don’t think it really matters that much doc…”

“You could get an infected cut, or potentially strain something that will lead to worse injuries in the future.” Warned Harvey. “Please try and take it easy for a little while. You need to let your body heal, even if you don’t feel like you need to.”

“… Okay.”

“Okay. Now you’re going to be in here for a while. Would you like me to get you something to drink? Some tea maybe?”

“Yeah, that would be nice.” He watched Harvey leave. Once he was gone he felt like shit. He knew his body was going to eventually fall apart if he couldn’t feel pain. He needed to feel pain. If he didn’t feel pain physical pain then what was the point of his human experience? He didn’t know. He leaned over the side of the bath tub and started to follow the cracks in the old tiles. It made him feel sick. Every day he was getting closer and closer to shattering.


	17. Secret Woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bleh, the weather is damn freezing here! Stupid Southern hemisphere weather... So I have a cold and stuff so yeah... Anyway, kudos and comment please. Enjoy :D

Fall hit the valley rather quickly and with that Apollyon was quick to discover the spa up in the mountains by the train station. Every other day he had been spending a few hours relaxing in the baths. To his surprise he hadn’t ever seen another soul actually use the baths, but he had heard Alex using the gym way off in the back.

He spent most of his time staring up at the ceiling or just off in the distance while he was soaking. Apollyon didn’t like looking at himself anymore. His jellyfish stings looked like cracks. Ugly cracks all over his body. He wanted to vomit every time he saw them. Sure his body healed quickly, but he still had to live with it until then. Even then the blue light in the spa seemed to highlight his scars like a winter star tree. It was disgusting. He was disgusting.

The first day of fall when he went to get seeds he had run into Jodie and Vincent. The poor child was so distressed about the whole situation. It was easy for Apollyon to forgive him. He was just a little over excited and didn’t take in his surroundings. As long as he learned from his mistake and didn’t do it again Apollyon didn’t mind.

Harvey and Maru were starting to badger him about coming by the clinic more often for check up’s and what not. It was kind of annoying, but he understood where they were coming from. He needed to be more careful with his body.

With a mournful sigh, Apollyon pulled himself out of the baths and wrapped around a towel around himself before trudging out to the change rooms. He sat on one of the benches and closed his eyes, thinking about what else he needed to do in fall. He had already planted heaps of pumpkins and cranberries so he was doing well in that regard. He’d also finally bought two chickens, Butter and Crispy. Robin had mentioned he could get ducks and rabbits if he upgraded his coop some more, so he was going to focus on gathering those things for a while.

He heard the clank of metal hitting metal as Alex was off doing something in the gym for a bit. It was kind of rhythmical. That sound went on for a while, or it could have been for a few minutes, he wasn’t sure. He was kind of staring off into space as Alex walked past him, startling him slightly.

“… You okay?” Asked Alex.

“Yeah.” Apollyon hadn’t really talked much to Alex since he moved to Pelican Town. He’d said hello a few times and bought an ice cream off him once during the Summer but that was about it. He had this distinct jock vibe that just didn’t gel too well with him. But to Alex’s credit he didn’t seem like a complete asshole. “Everything’s just… It’s hard sometimes you know? I’m spacing out a lot more than I used to.”

“You’re also coming up here a lot more than you usually do.” Added Alex. “Do you just come here for the baths? Never seen the weights getting adjusted or anything when I come up here. Don’t tell me you can lift more farmer?”

Apollyon appreciated the small talk. “I get enough exercise on my farm. I’ll probably end up super buff by the end of the year. Maybe I’ll be able to bench press you?”

Alex scoffed at that notion and started to change out of his gym clothes. “Doubt it. Well, see you around. Don’t stick around too long it’s starting to get dark.”

He smiled a little and waved at Alex as he left. A few minutes after he was gone Apollyon peeled himself off the bench, dried, dressed, and headed out. It was only just starting to become dusk right now. He needed to spend more time looking after the farm rather than spending all day in the spa.

Deciding to take the long way home past the community centre, Apollyon walked past Robin’s home. Much to his surprise as he did so, Sebastian stepped outside, cigarette already hanging from his lips. 

He looked surprised to see Apollyon, but nodded slightly at him anyway. “Hey.”

“Hey. Smoke break?”

“Pretty much… How are you?”

Apollyon shrugged. “I’m okay. Just heading home now.”

Sebastian nodded a little. “Cool… So you don’t really have anything planned for tonight?”

The farmer stopped for a moment and gave Sebastian a quizzical look. Was Sebastian going to suggest they do something? Together? Maybe he was going to invite him somewhere and they were going to meet up with Abby and Sam? That seemed more likely. “Oh? You wanna do something?”

He shrugged a little and lit his cigarette. He looked like he was blushing a little, but Apollyon couldn’t really tell. “Well, I was thinking of walking over to the secret woods…”

“Thought you didn’t want to go?”

“Yeah well… I’ve just been thinking about going down there for a bit since Abby suggested it. Just never got around to it.”

Apollyon hummed a little and shrugged. “Okay. Come with me. We’ll take the shortcut through my farm. I need to get my sword if we’re heading that way.”

Sebastian nodded and closely followed Apollyon back to Hellfire farm.

***

His smoke break was more than just an excuse to stand out and breathe in that nicotine. Sebastian was frustrated. He didn’t know how to approach Apollyon and thank him for what he did during the jellyfish festival. He hadn’t see Apollyon for a few days and he was getting worried. He’d asked Maru if he was alright, since he kept going to the clinic, but she never really gave him too much information because of that whole doctor patient confidentiality crap.

It was frustrating. He wanted to see him again and see if he was okay, but he had so much work to do. He wondered if Apollyon was stuck in bed or if he was staying at the clinic. He didn’t know much about jellyfish stings and how long it took to heal.

His mind was so preoccupied with these particular thoughts that it was starting to impact his work. Instead of typing ‘Objective right;’ he ended up typing ‘Apollyon right;’. Which really annoyed him because those letters weren’t anywhere near each other. He needed to do something to get his mind off everything.

So when he went outside and saw the farmer just outside his door, Sebastian’s brain started to short circuit and he started blurting out stupid things. Now he was going to the secret woods with Apollyon, just like Abby wanted them to in the first place.

He felt stupid and dumb as he tried to get his mind into order while Apollyon went through his tools and searched for his sword. His pants hugged his butt nicely as he squatted in front of his chest. Yoba have mercy. Sebastian hated how his damned mind was working. 

Suddenly Apollyon stood up and stuck his sword through his belt loop. “Come on Seb. Those slime’s aren’t gonna slay themselves.”

“Right…” Sebastian followed Apollyon down to the Cindersap forest entrance of the farm. He noted that most of the trees had been cleared out, and a few of them had tree tappers on them. He also had a small area fenced off and ready for something. There seemed to be a few trees growing in that area, but he couldn’t be sure what kind of trees they actually was.

He didn’t mention it and continued to follow Apollyon down to Cindersap forest. He felt kind of dumb asking to go to the secret woods they could have just stayed at his farm or something. Maybe he was just over thinking things? That was probably it. He took a long drag of his cigarette to try and ease his nerves with a strong hit of nicotine. 

Once they got to the entrance of the secret woods, Apollyon stopped him. “I’ll be back in a second. I’m gonna clear out the slimes.”

“…Okay.” He watched Apollyon happily walk off into the secret woods while he started to smoke a second cigarette. He couldn’t tell if this was his anxiety talking but he felt like this was a dumb idea. There wasn’t going to be anything interesting in there. Nothing he’d care about anyway.

“Okay, all clear.” Apollyon had a bit of slime on his shirt but apart from that he didn’t look any different. He gestured for Sebastian to follow him and the pair walked into the secret forest. The majority of the secret woods were covered in a thick canopy of trees yet it wasn’t dark in the slightest. There were fire flies or some kind of bioluminescent insect that bathed the whole place in an almost otherworldly glow.

“Whoa…”

Apollyon chuckled a little and walked a little deeper into the woods. “What? You never been in here before?”

“When I was younger, sure… Just not in the past few years.” There were several times when he was younger that he, Abby, and Sam would venture in here. However they always ran for it when the smiles appeared. They got in pretty deep a few times but they couldn’t stay for very long.

“Fair enough.” Apollyon walked to the ruins way in the back. He stabbed his sword into the ground and sat by the foot of the statue of Old Master Cannoli. Not too sure what to do, Sebastian also sat at the foot of the statue.

Although he didn’t really think it was a smart idea to ask Apollyon to bring him here, he had to admit it was peaceful. If he could get rid of the slimes coming here he would probably come here and smoke. It would make a nice change from just standing by the river near his house.

He could hear crickets chirping quietly in the underbrush and the occasional hoot of an owl as they went about their nocturnal business. It was peaceful. He stole a glance over at Apollyon and was a little surprised to see that the light from the insects gave his skin the same iridescent glow that the jellies had done previously. He looked amazing. This place, the secret woods, had to be other worldly in nature somehow.

Apollyon seemed to be distracted by looking at some kind of insect fluttering by, so Sebastian dared to look at him just that little bit longer. Looking past the almost ethereal glow that he had at the moment, Sebastian saw he had scrapes and cuts on his hands, and just peeking out of his collar were a few stray jellyfish stings. They looked like aggressively red lightning. A small reminder that he saved Sebastian from a world of pain.

Unfortunately for him, his staring didn’t go unnoticed. “You gonna keep looking at me or what?”

Sebastian blushed and looked away. “Sorry. I just… It must have really hurt.”

“It didn’t.”

“No seriously, you must have really been hurting.”

Apollyon smiled softly at him. “Well I’m being serious too. I got knocked the hell out a while ago and it fucked me up. I can’t feel pain anymore.”

That surprised him, but Sebastian wasn’t too sure he believed him fully. “Really?”

“Yep. Get something sharp and stab me.” Said Apollyon calmly. “Heck, punch me in the dick and well… I guess I’ll just feel you punching me in the dick, but without the pain. Harvey wants me to get my brain scan, but it’s not going to help.”

“Why?”

He sighed a little, running his hand through his hair. “… There’s something seriously fucked up with me.”

“Who isn’t fucked up?”

Apollyon chuckled a little and looked up at the canopy. The fire fly lights danced like stars in his eyes. “I’m being serious here Seb… Remember how my step dad told you I was a demon? He wasn’t pulling your leg. I really am one.”

Sebastian sighed when he heard that. Maybe Apollyon just felt like one because his step dad was an asshole to him for so long? Either way he wasn’t a real demon, unless he had some mental issues he didn’t know about. He’d just play along a little for now. “Really?”

“Yep. Ask me anything you want to know. I can answer most things.”

“Alright, where did you come from?” If he was going to play this weird game from out of nowhere he was going to play too.

“The Void obviously.” Said Apollyon calmly. “The cold place that’s said to be the physical barrier between this world at the Yoba plane… It’s very cold there… There’s no light there. The only warmth that exists is from the other creatures that live in there, but getting close to that warmth is a huge gamble. Back then I could have gotten eaten by anything.” 

“You remember the Void and almost getting eaten?”

“Yep, and I didn’t say almost. I did get eaten.” Corrected Apollyon. “But due to the nature of demonic entities unless we’re completely eviscerated to the point where the majority of our cells are gone we keep coming back.” He shuddered a little. “It was really weird. Like I knew I wasn’t going to die, but whatever… I was some weird shapeless slug that slithered around just living my life in the darkness.”

Sebastian frowned a little. This just seemed like some stupid bad joke. A joke that wasn’t even ironically not funny. “So then how did you get here anyway?”

“I’m sure that Colt mentioned to you how I was born. He loves to harp on about that grotesque story…”

He had to agree that. It was a grotesque story. “Yeah.”

Apollyon chuckled a little and looked up at the canopy. It didn’t seem like there was much humour behind it, more like it was just a reaction he was having to this situation. “Well, I saw a light suddenly rip into the Void. Light is scary and everything went to run away. I was going to too, but the light touched me and it felt warm. I wanted that warmth. I followed it and I wasn’t shapeless anymore. I had a body with constraints. I couldn’t change and move the way I wanted to… And my mum, Elizabeth, she was the first thing I saw with these eyes and she was so warm.”

“Right… So you possessed some still born baby. How the hell does that work?” He still wasn’t buying this crap.

Either Apollyon didn’t notice Sebastian’s growing disinterest or he didn’t care and continued to talk. “Yeah, but possession is easier when you can inhabit a body that has no soul. I haven’t just inhabited this body anymore I am this body. It is a part of me and I am a part of it. Without a soul there is nothing forcing me back so I can’t fully take control of it. I’ve taken over every cell and mimicked it so that medically I look human, that is unless I took some extreme physical trauma.”

“Oh really? How interesting.” Sebastian took out his phone, wondering if there was any reception out here in the secret woods. He also wondered if this was the part where Apollyon went crazy and killed him.

Apollyon sighed a little. “Look, it’s fine with me if you think I’m crazy or want to avoid me. I’m fine with being left alone. It’s better that way.”

Suddenly it all seemed to click for Sebastian. Despite the absurdity of it all he couldn’t help but conclude that this elaborate story was just some rouse. Why though? Well, if all that shit he said about his step father was true, Apollyon probably had crushing self-esteem issues. Couple that with the fact he seemed fine to spend weeks alone on his farm. He probably had social anxiety issues too and wanted to be left alone because he was more comfortable that way.

He knew that feeling well. He himself had anxiety when he was around people and when he forced himself to go to all those damned social events he’d be drained for days on end. This weird tactic of saying he was some demon was just a defence mechanism Apollyon must have created to push people away when they started to get too close. That conclusion made his heart beat a little faster because that meant Apollyon considered Sebastian someone he was getting close to. Right?

Sebastian couldn’t help but let a small laugh escape his lips when he figured that out. If Apollyon felt that he was close to him in that way he decided to accept this nonsense, at least for now. “I’m not going to avoid you.”

Apollyon seemed surprised by this. “Really? You’re not?”

“Yeah. So you’re a demon. Who gives a fuck? Seriously in this day and age a demon from the actual Void is better than the government that’s actively trying to fuck everyone over.”

“… Thank you.” Apollyon looked relieved and kind of relaxed a little. As far as Sebastian was concerned he had proved, at least for the moment that he was willing to stick around him despite whatever unfortunate mental issues Apollyon might have.

***

Apollyon couldn’t believe his ears. Sebastian didn’t care about his weird existence. He actually accepted him. Yoba have mercy he was just telling Sebastian all this because he felt like he deserved a better explanation after Colt acted like an asshole and just blurted out his unnatural creation.

He thought that Sebastian would think he was a freak and just go home, avoiding him for the rest of their lives. Hell it worked on other people before he just learned to be an antisocial bastard that just worked well at keeping people away.

Sebastian accepted him. He accepted the strange and darker parts of his existence that most people just down right reject. He couldn’t stop his heart thumping loudly in his chest or the blush quickly dusting his face. Sebastian was different. Sebastian was… just was… he was amazing.

Yoba have mercy this man was causing to have so many different emotions all at once. He felt like he was caving in, no he had been caved in. He didn’t know what to think about this. Without really thinking about it, Apollyon reached over and lightly touched Sebastian’s hand, just for a moment.

Much to his surprise, Sebastian didn’t pull away and instead hooked one of his fingers around Apollyon’s finger. It made him smile a little. He felt a little anxious but at the same time he felt good. He liked being close to someone like this even if it was for a little while. Yoba, he felt like he was becoming bi polar at this point. One minute he was anxious, then angry, then exhausted. Actually he probably had depression more than anything else.

But he’d deal with that later. He was just happy that Sebastian was there with him in that moment and he didn’t think he was crazy.

“So,” said Sebastian. “Do you have a demon form or are you just good at mimicking humans?”

Apollyon smiled a little. “I look human until I take extreme physical trauma. So like unless I get decapitated or take on an injury that would kill a normal human I pretty much stay the same. Apart from that I have rapid healing for most things. Serious things heal fast while stuff like cuts and bruises take less of a priority. So I’ll have these jellyfish scars for a while.” It felt so good to talk to someone else about this. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Huh, so the only way to get you to change is if I stab you in the neck or something?” Asked Sebastian as he finished off his cigarette.

That made Apollyon laugh a little. “Well that’s not the only way. There are so many other ways that it could happen. Slitting my throat for example…” His mouth went dry at that thought and he unintentionally touched along his neck. “It was like fine hail across my skin…”

“Enough talk about this demon crap.” Said Sebastian calmly. “You don’t have to spill your guts out to me tonight… But have you gone and told anyone else this? This demon stuff?”

“Nope. No one else has met Colt so there’s no need for me to.”

“Okay… We should probably keep this between us for now. Other people might find it weird.”

The thought of telling anyone else this secret was enough to make Apollyon snort with laughter. “Trust me, I’m keeping this mouth of mine shut on this issue. Guess you could say it’s out little secret.”

Sebastian laughed a little. “Yep. Making secrets in the secret woods.” He looked up at the canopy and the two sat quietly for a while. 

It was nice just to be close together. However in the back of his mind he felt like there was something there, whispering self-doubt and other kinds of nasty little things. Things that told him this was a bad idea, that he needed to back away slowly and go back to isolating himself from the rest of the town. For now this was good. He was kind of happy.


	18. Junimos, mice, and magic fights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A brief interlude concerning the more magical residents of Stardew Valley. Also, I decided to give hat mouse a tiny backstory because I love hat mouse. Hat mouse needs more love! Remember to kudos and comment if you like what I'm doing. Enjoy :D

The Junimos were in a panic and it was all because of Yellow and Orange. The two Junimo’s had been tasked with following the farmer around for the week and saw him confess his secret to Sebastian in the secret woods. It sent everyone into a panic because most of them had other ideas for who the farmer should take as a partner. Many Junimos were ripping up bits of paper and throwing them into the air while squealing about their upcoming plans being laid to ruin.

“But my plans for the library! Pretty book lady was going to be there! They were going to talk about the word squiggles!”

“I had plans for the farmer and Mr writer man to eat delicious foods on the beach!”

“I was gonna make the farmer and the drunk one go and look after chickens together! Did you know the farmer has chickens now?”

“The groovy lady and the farmer were the perfect pair!”

“But the spa house thing and grid ball… Grid ball and farmer…”

Green was watching the chaos unfold from the safety of the community center rafters. They themselves didn’t have too much to say on who the farmer’s partner was they just wanted them to have someone, anyone to help them take care of the farm. As long as this Sebastian fellow that Yellow and Orange spoke about made the farmer happy then it didn’t matter.

Blue waddled over and sat next to Green. “They are really going crazy huh?”

“Yeah. Weren’t you planning to get the famer together with the artsy wood lady?”

They shrugged. “Hey, plans change all the time. Adapt or die as the humans say.”

Green nodded in agreement and watched Junimos argue with each other for a while before standing up and stretching. “Well, I’m gonna go see Hat mouse.”

“Me too!” Said Blue. “I want to get an acorn while we’re out.”

Green gave Blue a weird look as they started to climb up and out a small hole in the roof of the community center. “Why?”

“Because it would make a cool looking hat.” Said Blue as they followed. “I want to pull the top half of it off, the little cap thing, and have a hat like that.”

“You’re too fat to be an acorn. And the wrong colour.” Reminded Green. They shimmied down the guttering and started to make their way over to Cindersap forest. They considered slipping into the sewers to get there, but that was where Krobus lived. The strange shadow brute seemed to prefer selling interesting and arcane goods, but that still didn’t mean he wouldn’t squash a Junimo if they crossed him on a bad day. They grabbed a bunch of fall leaves, intending to use them as camouflage as they slowly made their way along the edges of the town.

Blue did the same. “I’m not fat…” They muttered. “I am the perfect roundness for a Junimo.”

***

Deep in the lowest parts of the Cindersap forest there was an abandoned house. No one had been there for years and the building had fallen into disrepair. The roof had a hole in it and the walls had rotted away in some places. The original purpose of the house had long been forgotten and many speculated what it was for. The most logical explanation for it was that it was an abandoned cabin that might have belonged to a hunter in days gone by.

In the most recent years a new resident had taken over the abandoned building. A being known as Hat mouse. Hat mouse once used to live in the walls of 2 Willow Lane where they learnt how to make hats from the resident seamstress Emily.

They enjoyed the art of hat making so much they decided to open up a shop and happily sold their hats to whomever wished to purchase one. They once created a hat for the wizard and the wizard gave them the ability to change their size so they could make hats easier. It was very useful.

At the moment Hat mouse was busy making a new hat. A nice pair of earmuffs for the coming winter. Hopefully the farmer would come by soon. They sent a letter to them weeks ago. Maybe it got lost in the mail? They would send the farmer a new letter soon.

The sound of someone ringing the bell at the front desk made Hat mouse quickly scurry over. They poked their head out. “Yes? Me sell hats. You buy hats, yes? EEK!”

Standing before them was Morgan, the witch of the valley. In one hand she held her broom and in the other some kind of hand bag made of some kind of pulsing black leather. She didn’t seem too amused that Hat mouse squeaked at her like that. The witch looked about the same if it wasn’t for the fact she had no hat on her head.

“Excuse me, but I believe you have my hat fixed by now.” She said calmly.

“Yes! Fixed hat! Me fix!” Hat mouse quickly scurried away and came back with a sparkly black and blue hat box with a big shiny white ribbon. “Me fix hat good?”

Morgana took the hat out of the box and inspected it. She turned it over and looked at it this way and that way. She ran her thumb over the shiny golden lock a few times before putting it on her head. Hat mouse waited with baited breath. If Morgana wasn’t happy then they could expect a world of pain.

“Yes, you did fix hat good.” Morgana held up her bag and it spat 1,000g onto the front counter. “I’ll be sure to visit again the next time it gets a hole burnt into it.”

Hat mouse quickly scooped the gold up in their paws. “Many thanks. Me make good hats. Good hats for all people.”

“Hat mouse!” Called the voice of the wizard. “I require your assistance with- Oh, Morgana…”

Hat mouse squeaked in fear. It was well known among the magical residents of Pelican town that the wizard and the witch were angry with each other and therefor needed to be kept away from each other. Unless all hell breaking out was something you wanted to happen on your doorstep. 

Morgana glared at the Wizard with venom. “Hello Ras, or should I call you the fucking cheater that can’t keep it in his damn pants!”

“I made a terrible mistake. It was a lapse in judgment and I regret it every day.” Said the Wizard. “You look good today…”

“Flattery will get you nowhere you loveless bastard!” Morgana’s fingers crackled with purple lightening as she started to draw some kind of magic circle in the air in front of her.

Hat mouse squeaked in terror and quickly closed up shop, scurrying down to the basement of the house where they kept most of their hat supplies. As they dashed down the stairs they couldn’t help but notice Green and Blue the Junimos sitting by their sewing supplies. 

Green waved at them. “Can we have hats please?”

Blue held up the cap of an acorn. “I want one like this! One like this!”

Hat mouse chuckled a little and quickly got to work finding patterns and the right fabric. They often made little hats for the Junimos. Mainly because they thought hats were neat and they kept losing the damn things every other day.

The sound of a tree shattering made all three occupants look up at the ceiling. Hat mouse sighed dramatically. “Witch and Wizard being all men. Going to destroy me hat shop. Where me sell hats if no hat shop?”

“Community center?” Suggested Blue as they picked up a button. “So what are they yelling about now anyway?”

Hat mouse shrugged. “Usual. Witch say Wizard is scum. Wizard apologizes. Witch blows up wizard. Repeat.”

Green sighed dramatically. “Those two need to talk it out properly. Maybe then things wouldn’t blow up so much around here. They can only cast that cone of silence spell thing so many times before someone notices some kind of bluish purple translucent dome.”

Hat mouse agreed. “Me house needs protection charm. Get wizard to make one. Me sell hats. Me need hat shop. Community center is Junimos home. Not hat shop.” A loud thump rocked the ground and shook the empty hat boxes off in the corner. “Hope they stop fighting soon…”

***

After an intense five minutes of flinging spells at each other both Morgana and the wizard were tired. They weren’t as young as they used to be and casting magic around like it was nothing took a lot out of the both of them.

“Can we talk now my dear lily pad?” Asked the Wizard cautiously.

“Suck a dick Rasmodius!” Snapped Morgana. “You don’t get to call me those things anymore! Kill yourself and I might be able to forgive your reincarnation!”

The Wizard sighed a little and massaged his temples. He felt like he was developing a headache. “Morgana please… I actually need to speak to you about a serious matter concerning the farmer.”

That seemed to pique her interest a little. “The farmer? What about him?” She sat on her broom and happily crossed her legs as it hovered in the air. “Did he do something bad?”

“Not yet, but you’ve done something to him.” He crossed his arms and glared at her in an attempt to stare her down, but it wasn’t working.

Morgana laughed at him and feigned innocence. “Me? What could I have possibly done to that little demon? If he wants to play cabbage farmer then who am I to stop him?”

“Morgana! He has come to me and gone to see his mother Elizabeth! Whatever you’ve done to him has disturbed him! What did you do?”

The witch sighed dramatically. Mentioning Elizabeth seemed to soften her mood a little, either that or she was too confident in her own abilities. “Okay look, he’s kind of half and half right? But he’s been living like a human for all of it. Time for him to live like a demon for a bit, don’t you think?”

The implications for this were catastrophic. “Morgana, you can’t be serious… He’s partially human… If the farmer were to be consumed by that emotional rage machine there’s no telling what it could do! It could rampage out there and k-”

“Kill someone?” Asked Morgana sweetly. “That’s the plan. Pelican town’s been blessed by Yoba’s light for far too long. A little murder will balance everything out once again don’t you think?”

The Wizard was horrified. “Are you out of your mind? Murder? You’re planning a murder? What is wrong with you?!”

“Hey this is your fault too!” She snapped. “You’ve been soooooooo adamant about making this town a place for good and neutral spirits. Did you think if the mines had a few monsters running around in them that would be enough? Fat fucking chance! The only way things will balance out now is if something super tragic happens! I can’t just fly around and randomly curse shit!” A wicked smile graced her face. “No Apollyon will help me out with this. I already explained it to him as best as his stupid mind could understand.”

This wasn’t right. Sure he had done what he could to make Pelican Town a safe place for spirits, but he didn’t realize he had disrupted the balance to such a degree. How could he? He was just doing what he thought was right. Had he tipped the scales so much that he was no longer able to fix it himself? He had to try something, anything to fix this mess.

“Then kill me.” He said. “Let my death balance out the scales and allow the valley to reset as it were.”

Morgana scoffed at the notion. “You? As much as I want you dead as road kill, you are important for balancing Yoba’s light. If you die some little shit head mage might try and take control of the tower and fuck that. The youth these days are reckless and dumb. Thinking that Yoba’s light is all important and you don’t need the Void’s darkness to balance it out. No, it will be someone from the village… Someone people will mourn. Someone close to the farmer…” She smirked. “And considering the cute little randevu those two had last night I have a pretty good idea who’s getting their guts eaten while Apollyon pins them to the dirt.”

The Wizard’s stomach turned. He could get a Junimo to tell him who Apollyon was getting close to later. Now he had a few other things on his mind. He had to try and reason with her. “Morgana, just because Apollyon’s demon side is starting to come through doesn’t mean anything. He is a very strong willed man.”

“The strong will of man means nothing with faced with a ravenous, starving beast.” She countered. With a small kick of her heels she slowly started to circle Rasmodious. “First I cast a spell on him to force his suppressed emotions from years of menial office work to the surface. Oh the murderous depravity. I can only imagine what demons dream of. Then I cast a second spell, one that slowly returns his body it its natural state of being. Demon’s don’t feel pain Ras. Now neither does he.”

“… Are you trying to drive him mad?” Asked the Wizard in disgust. “This is much too far for even you Morgana. Undo your cursed magic and let Apollyon live his life as he sees fit! I’m sure you can come up with something else that’s just as devastating as murder!”

She shook her head. “Nope. It’s already set in motion. I already started phase three of my plan. One and two were all about getting emotionally disturbed and used to his demon senses again, or lack thereof.” She giggled gleefully at the thought. “This is going to be fun!” Before The Wizard could say anything else, Morgana quickly flew off back to her hut with a cackle.

He sighed a little and massaged his temples again. He really needed to stop this potential murder, but at the same time if Morgana was right then stopping this murder was going to be more trouble than it was worth. No, he had to stop this, or at least try and prevent this. He had to. He was many things but he wasn’t going to let Morgana try and fix the balance this way.

“… Hats?”

The Wizard jumped a little and looked back over at Hat mouse. They looked a little worried as they tried to inspect the potential damage done to the house. “Ah yes. Sorry about that. We avoided causing needless damage to your humble abode.”

Hat mouse nodded a little. “Fix hat? Buy hat? Me sell hats.”

“Yes, yes…” He took off his hat and passed it to Hat mouse. “There is a rather large moth living somewhere in my tower and it started to eat through my hat.”

Hat mouse nodded and inspected the hat. “Three days fix. Bring me charm?”

“Charm? What charm?”

“Protection charm. Save hat shop.” Said Hat mouse. As they spoke Green and Blue climbed up onto the counter top. Blue was wearing a beanie that looked like the top of an acorn and Green had a tiny bowlers hat. They waved up at the Wizard.

“Yes of course. One protection charm.” He said as his attention was quickly drawn to the Junimos. “Now you two I need to ask you a very important question, who has the farmer gotten close to?”


	19. Stardew Valley Fair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep and with this chapter the rating goes up. Leave a comment and or a kudos to show you are enjoying the fic :D

Sweet Yoba how did things end up this way? The farmer had just turned up out of nowhere while Sebastian was just typing out some simple code to fix a catastrophic problem for a client, and now they were smoking pot. But smoking lead to talking, and talking lead to longing looks, longing looks lead to touching, and touching lead to well what they were doing now.

Sebastian was splayed out on his back, watching the smoke swirl around his head while Apollyon’s fingers started tracing his sides in an almost feather like manner. He was slowly pushing the thick material of Sebastian’s hoodie up and devouring each new piece of skin with lazy licks and kisses. His actions sent small shockwaves through Sebastian’s body that went straight to his groin. 

He felt like a virgin again, which was far from the truth. Sebastian had a few sexual partners in the past. His first time had been with a girl in his history class. She looked pretty and said that she liked him. They had done it in the back of car during some drive in movie. It was awkward, and kind of clunky, and felt wrong to him. They broke up soon after that.

His second time had been a one night stand with a man in Zuzu. They were both a little tipsy and the sex was rougher than he would have liked, but it was a thousand times better than with a woman. It felt right and drove him wild in a way nothing else had. Like any new experience that flooded his mind with endorphins Sebastian wanted more, and he got more. For a few months he had gone to Zuzu to have a few more one night stands. That didn’t last. He didn’t like the idea of one night stands. He wanted more.

“Hey.” Whispered Apollyon, his voice snapping Sebastian out of his daze. He was face to face with him now. “Don’t think about them. I’m the only one with you now.”

His heart felt like it was going to leap out of his chest. He didn’t realize how desperate he was for this to happen. Sebastian reached out and tangled his fingers in Apollyon’s hair as he pulled into a feverish kiss that left them both panting. But neither had time to catch their breath as Apollyon pulled him back in for another.

Sebastian let out moan as Apollyon’s skillful hands made their way back down to his hips and grab his ass. He raised his hips, trying to get Apollyon to touch him somewhere else. Somewhere he desperately needed.

“A-Apollyon, please…” He whispered.

“Please what Sebby?” Purred Apollyon. “You want me to touch this?” He groped Sebastian through his pants. He bit his bottom lip, trying hard to hold back a moan. “Or would you rather touch this instead?” Apollyon took Sebastian’s hand and shoved it down his pants, beneath his underwear. He didn’t break eye contact the whole time he let Sebastian touch and grope his semi-erect cock.

Yoba have mercy he was huge already and getting larger with every squeeze. Just feeling how large he was just excited Sebastian even more. “Fuck, I want it all Apollyon. Give it to me, please.”

Apollyon moaned softly, rolling his hips into Sebastian’s hand. “Hmm, by the time I’m done with you you’re not gonna be able to tell the difference between Java script and C#.”

Sebastian shivered in anticipation. If Apollyon did indeed keep that promise he wasn’t going to be able to sit properly for a week either. As Apollyon undid his pants and pull them off along with his underwear, Sebastian couldn’t help but gasp as the cool air of his room hit his cock.

Apollyon hummed in approval at this. No wait, he was humming a tune? No not a tune. A rhythmic beat? Why? What on earth was Apollyon doing?

***

Sebastian’s eyes snapped open. Without moving out of bed he grabbed his phone to see who was messaging him at the ungodly hour of eight in the morning. Mother fucking Sam. He was going to murder him for cock blocking him. Was it even technically a cock block if it was a wet dream? Maybe? Screw it, Sam was dead.

Apparently he was asking where he was. As it turned out today was the day of the Stardew Valley Fair. If that was the case his mum was going to come down any second to make sure he was ready to head down by eight thirty.

Moments later Robin knocked on his bedroom door. “Come on Sebby. Time to get up. The fair will be starting soon.”

“… I’ll be up soon mum.” Called Sebastian. Once he heard Robin ascending the staircase he lifted his bed sheets to see if he needed to beat one out or change his bed sheets. Thankfully for him he wasn’t going to have to do a suspiciously large load of laundry today. He quickly took care of himself, got dressed and begrudgingly went to start his day.

He walked down to the town with the rest of his family and quickly went off to meet Sam and Abigail. Abigail was busy trying to bet Sam’s high score at the Slingshot booth, but she wasn’t doing too well by the way she was turning red in the face and Sam was laughing.

“Come on Abby.” He said. “It’s not that hard.”

“Sam, I swear to Yoba if you don’t shut the fuck up right now I am going to shoot you in the dick and shove the handle of this slingshot down your dick hole.”

Sam cringed a little at that thought and glanced over at Sebastian, grinning. “He Seb, you made it before midday.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Well, my mum woke me up for this.” He had a quick look around at the other stalls set up around the place. He noticed Apollyon placing produce in his grange display. Just seeing the farmer made him blush as the lewd images of his dream quickly invaded his mind. Yoba, he liked Apollyon. There he admitted it. He liked the weird farmer.

Suddenly Abby was hanging off him, grinning. “Hey Seb, you looking at the farmer’s ass?”

He blushed. “Shut up Abby.”

“You so totally are.” She playfully poked his side as he gestured over to Apollyon. “Oh yeah babe, you bend over and shake that booty.”

He lightly shoved her. “Piss off Abby. I’m not staring at his ass.”

“Whose ass are you staring at?” Asked Apollyon.

Sebastian was sure his face was bright red now. “No one. I’m going to smoke somewhere quiet. Too many tourists.” He quickly scurried off to a quiet part of the fair, leaving his friends mildly confused.

***

Apollyon didn’t really know what was wrong with Sebastian. He’d just come over to see what was going on with the trio. Maybe Sebastian had just realized that Apollyon was someone he needed to avoid at all costs or something? He wouldn’t blame him if that was the case.

Thankfully Abby pulled him out of his negative spiral by playfully bumping her hip into his. “So what did you put in your grange display? My dad’s been stressing about it for weeks.”

“Oh um, a large brown egg, mayonnaise, a crab, some flowers, and some corn.” He listed off each item on his fingers. “Pretty sure I won’t win, but it’s still fun to participate. Your dad really seems into it. He told me he hasn’t lost a single year.”

Abby shrugged. “Yeah well, he’s competitive when it comes to produce… Soooooooo, you do something to our boy Sebby?”

“… What?”

Sam grinned. “Yeah. He got all flustered when he saw you.”

Apollyon really hoped that Sebastian wasn’t weirded out by his demon thing. He seemed cool about it before. “Um, I guess that’s kind of weird…”

Abby grinned. “Hey, crazy idea, ask Sebastian out on a date.”

Apollyon sighed a little. “Look, he isn’t interested in me and I don’t do long term relationships.” It wasn’t like he didn’t try when he was interested in someone, but his long term relationships either ended because they thought he was crazy and left, or if they were a magic user they usually tended to try and murder him. He liked Sebastian too much for something like that to happen.

Abby scowled at him for that. “Seriously? Come on Apollyon. He’s kind of crazy about you in his own Sebastian way. Trust me, Sam and I have known him way longer than you. He likes you.”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Yep. By now he’s probably reached stage five.” He started counting off each stage on his fingers. “First, there’s annoyed denial, raging denial, quiet contemplation, denial, and embarrassed denial. Final stage is reluctant acceptance, which is usually followed by crushing depression since he’s a dumb gay boy and keeps falling for those damn straights.”

“… You speaking from experience Sammy?” Asked Apollyon. 

“Ben.” Said Abby and Sam in unison. Noticing his quizzical look, Abby quickly filled him in. “Guy at our high school. He was pretty cool but you could use him as an accurate ruler he was so straight. It really crushed him when he started going out with Sarah-Ann.”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but you know what? I think it was an even bigger blow to him because he was dating Sarah-Ann a week before they broke up just so she could get with Ben… Ah, I miss the days of high school drama.”

“I thought Sebastian wasn’t into women?”

“Well not anymore.” Said Abby. “For a while he thought he was bisexual, that’s why he dated Sarah-Ann. He had this idea in his head that it was better to like both then to just like dick. Teenage logic is weird.”

After that brief bit of relationship history the trio talked for a little more before they all went their separate ways. While Apollyon waited for Lewis to judge the grange displays he went around and looked at all the other things the fair had to offer. A few game stands, a sad clown doing some clown tricks, Marlon, Robin, and Clint were showing off their skills when it came to weapons, carpentry, and smelting respectively, There was an animal petting zoo, someone was telling fortunes, and Gus was giving away free burgers.

Be still his beating heart the second he learned that the burgers were free started piling burgers onto his plate and stuffing his face. Yoba have mercy he hadn’t been able to cook for himself because he was running himself ragged these days. Most days he just ate whatever his grubby little hands could snatch up while foraging. These burgers were so good. The meat was cooked to perfection with such wonderful and crisp vegetables, and that BBQ sauce? It had to be homemade.

Gus seemed pleased that Apollyon was stuffing his face. “Ha, maybe I should consider charging these burgers if you’re gonna pack them away like that.”

Apollyon shrugged as he downed his sixth burger. “Hey, I’d pay for it. These are really good… And I kind of didn’t eat before I came here.”

He let out a bellowing laugh before dropping off some more napkins and heading back to the BBQ. Apollyon loved hearing the sizzle of perfectly seasoned food cooking on any kind of hot surface; BBQ, pan, spit, heck he loved the sound of bacon sizzling on a hot tin roof. However, after eating around ten of Gus’s amazing survival burgers the sound and smell of delicious foods was starting to make him feel nauseous.

He quickly left that place and wandered down to the animals. Jas and Vincent were happily running around attempting to reach into every pen to touch every animal. Luckily for the children, Shane looked relatively sober and was watching them closely, along with the chickens. Harvey was also there so the kids wouldn’t be in any danger at all.

Apollyon hummed a little to himself and leaned over one of the pens, looking at the pigs. “Hello pre bacon. Don’t you look nice and juicy today?” The pig gave Apollyon a disgusted look before trotting away to lean against its water trough. “… Oops. Sorry?”

“Never thought I’d see you here Apollyon.” Cooed Gadreel as he slipped next to him.

Apollyon jumped a little, but quickly regained his composure. “The fuck are you doing here?”

Gadreel chuckled a little. “You’re always so eloquent when it comes to your greetings.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flyer, handing it over. It was one for the Stardew Valley fair. On the back someone scribbled a message simply saying ‘A familiar demon lives here’. Apollyon passed it back without much of second thought. “This was left in my mailbox a few days ago. I couldn’t help but jump at the chance to see who I was going to meet again.”

“… Well it’s a good thing I’m just visiting.” He lied. “I’d have to kill you if you found out where I was really hiding out.”

He smirked. “Oh really now? I asked that nice women, the one with the green hair, about where the majority of the fresh produce comes from around here. Said most of it came from a place called Hellfire Farm run by a farmer named Apollyon. Your name is not a very common one.”

“… Fuck.” Damn that Caroline and her need to make small talk with the damn tourists. “So what? I live here. Now that you know that I have to kill you.”

Gadreel just laughed at the thought. “Oh Apollyon, we don’t have to go through that happy little song and dance again. At least not today. I’m just doing a little recon today.”

“Oh? I’m flattered you’d do all that for me.” Well Apollyon was going to abandon his farm and start his life as a hermit. He could be the other hermit and learn all the hermit things from Linus. He seemed to have the hermit shtick down to a fine art. “Guess I should be expecting a visit from you soon?”

He shrugged. “Perhaps. It all depends on how I feel.” He hummed happily as he watched some piglets snuffle around in the dirt. “I saw that Sebastian fellow again, but I don’t think he saw me through that haze of smoke.”

A small growl attempted to claw its way out his throat, but he somehow managed to hold it back. “You stay away from him.”

Gadreel grinned. He seemed to relish Apollyon’s discomfort and growing anger. “Why? You laid some weird, disgusting demonic claim on him or something?”

“Go back to Zuzu and get hit by a train.” Snarled Apollyon. Truth be told he didn’t really know what a demonic entity like himself was meant to do if he found someone he wanted to be with. He had no idea if their relationship models were more based on human or animal relationships. Even then if it was animal there was a huge variation in relationship types in the animal kingdom. He really had no idea but he doubted that he would try and physically mark someone. Humans seemed to be the ones that were obsessed with marking what they think is their property.

No matter what he seemed to say or how he said it Gareel seemed to find it all amusing in some way or another. “Come on Apollyon, show some humanity and be nice to me… Well I guess you can’t really do that now can you? Show humanity. Can’t show something you never had.”

Apollyon growled at Gadreel, baring his teeth and digging his nails into the wooden fence of the pig pen. More than anything he wanted to grab Gadreel and rip out his fucking throat. However he’d have to just settle for angry glaring instead.

“Nice acting demon, but you’re not fooling anyone.” He hummed a little and turned to leave. “I’ll be back soon Apollyo, and when I do I’ll bring some friends. You better hope that when we come for you that we’re far away from the people that live here. I might be one to try and minimize collateral damage, but most of my friends believe that the ends justify the means.”

Purely on reflex Apollyon reached back and grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “If you’re gonna fucking fight me it’s gonna be on my farm. Nowhere else, got it?”

Gadreel shrugged off Apollyon’s grip. “Well, I guess if a monster like you is bothering to fake concern for humans I guess I can grant you that wish. It’s the least I can do for an old classmate.” He smiled ever so sweetly at Apollyon. “I’ll come by before the feast of the winter star. That should be enough time for you to get your affairs in order.”

Every instinct was telling Apollyon to pounce on Gadreel and rip into him. He hadn’t just threatened his life, he’d gone and threatened leveling the town. He didn’t care if Gadreel thought he was putting on an act or not. He wasn’t the most righteous of men but he wasn’t going to let innocent people get hurt because of him. He was going to find a way to fix this.

***

Sebastian felt dumb. He’d immediately run away from Apollyon after talking with him for two seconds and had gone through almost half a pack of cigarettes. He really needed to start cutting back. Maybe start chewing nicotine gum, or the nicotine patches maybe? Something to think about later. 

Abby popped up next to him and shoved a plate of food into his hands. “Eat up bitch. You can’t live off coffee and nicotine.”

He sighed and reluctantly ate what she’d given him without really looking. “So, is the fair over yet?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Come on Seb, it’s only just midday.”

Abby nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we still gotta at least get our fortunes read by Welwick. Sammy’s already gone and done his.”

“Yep.” Sam was practically beaming. “She saw me playing guitar on stage in front of people. So I’m guessing we might get a gig soon. Either that or we’re going on one of those talent shows.”

“I refuse to be part of any reality TV show.” Said Sebastian bluntly. “They are bullshit and create fake drama for the sake of ratings. I would rather give myself a battery acid enema.” 

Abby pulled a face. “Ew. I’m gonna go and see what Welwick has to say about me. Get over to the graveyard when you’re done.” She quickly ran off. The boys followed her at a much slower pace. By the time they got there Abby was just finishing up her fortune reading. She seemed very pleased.

“What did she see Abs?” Asked Sam.

“I’m gonna pass my online course.” Said Abby happily. “There’s also a chance I’m gonna find and or get given something amazing soon. I hope it’s a large deposit in my bank account.”

Sebastian didn’t believe in the fortune telling business. He thought it was pretty stupid, but it was fun stupid. Kind of like how people would watch a terribly acted and directed movie to make fun of it.

While Abby and Sam were talking about their perceived good luck, Sebastian walked into the tent. Welwick was sitting on her chair behind a table with intricate celestial patterns carved into it with a large crystal ball dead center. Welwick herself was a little old woman wearing a heavy blue woolen robe and red lipstick that was just a bit too bright and kind of looked painted on.

She smiled sweetly at him and gestured to the chair. “Ah, I suspected you would be coming here today.”

“Did you see that in your crystal ball?” He asked as he took a seat.

“Nope. You three come in here every year.” She waved her hand over the crystal ball, making the insides swirl with smoke. “But let’s forget about the past. We’re here to see into the future.”

Sebastian sat back and watched her put on her little show with her hand waving and visual effects she used in the crystal ball. He had a theory that she had some kind of peddle under the table, or button that she would press to make these things happen. It was pretty neat and he had to give her points for trying to create an atmosphere.

“I see… a field. You’re standing with someone. A young man. You two are close. Very close. You’re anxious but happy. Now I see… snow. Lots of snow. But there is something else mixed in with it. It’s hard to tell if it’s red or black. Perhaps burnt embers? There’s an animal, wounded, hunted. It’s furious… You’re standing over someone. They are very sick. However, you’re both happy… That is all the crystal shows me.”

“… Right.”

“Now remember, the future isn’t set in stone. You have the power to change your fate.”

“Okay. See you next year.” He always hated when fortune tellers said that kind of line. It was just a way to cover their own asses in case they got their prediction wrong. It was a lazy copout. The moment he stepped out of the tent Abby and Sam looked at him expectantly. “… I think I’m gonna see someone either shoot a bear or set a bear on fire and shoot it.”

Sam nodded in approval. “Metal.”


	20. Sewer adventures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, Apollyon meets Krobus. That little Shadow Brute is one of my fav characters and I think he has quite an interesting backstory, like why is he friendly? Why does he seem to worship Yoba if he himself is a monster? Is Yoba an invention of monsters that was adopted by people or something people made that monsters adopted? Is Yoba even real? How is a monsters worship of Yoba different to human worship of Yoba? So many questions! Please leave a Kudos or a comment. Enjoy :D

Apollyon still couldn’t feel pain and it sucked. Now normally people would think this would be manageable as long as you looked after yourself. However, Apollyon wasn’t a careful person. He somehow managed to fuck up his hand with a meat tenderizer while he was attempting to prepare a stew for dinner that night.

He got distracted by Goblin and ended up crushing the back of his hand with a sickening crunch. It kind of sounded like someone crushed a bag of potato chips in their fist. Apollyon spent a few minutes trying to find a bandage or something to wrap it in. He ended up using a tea towel. With any luck he’s be fine by evening.

When he eventually went outside he was surprised to see Gunther. He was the strange man in the big blue cowboy hat that ran the library/museum. Every now and then Apollyon would bring cool looking artifacts and interesting rocks down for him to put on display.

“Morning Mr Apollyon.” He said with a slight twang to his voice. “I hope it’s not too early.”

“Not at all. I was just coming out to do some farming, as a farmer does. What’s up?”

“Well, I just wanted to stop by and thank you in person for all the wonderful artifacts and minerals you’ve discovered… you’ve done so much for just one person.” He reached into his pocket and took out a rusty looking key. “I have a gift for you. It’s an old key that’s been sealed in the museum vault for at least a hundred years. It’s rusty but still beautiful.”

Apollyon took the key off him and nodded. It really was beautiful. The handle of the key had a few interesting patterns carved into it and the rusty colour made it look a little like it was made of bronze. “Cool. Thanks Gunther.”

The man nodded a little and tipped his hat. “I’ll be seeing you around soon.” Gunther left and now Apollyon had to wonder what the mysterious key could open. He’d be spending most of the day figuring this mystery out. 

Luckily for him there were very few locked doors around Pelican Town. Strangely enough though it happened to be the key to the sewers. It seemed strange that the sewer key was in a safe somewhere for a hundred years, but who was he to complain? To satisfy his curiosity he ventured into the sewers to see what was in there, besides rivers of piss and shit.

It didn’t seem like there was much in there and he was going to head back, but he heard something weird in a far off corner. He quickly found the source of the sound, it seemed to be a Shadow Brute. It was gently nudging a few pots around with its body. It didn’t seem to have hands. It quickly spotted Apollyon and its strange eyes grew wide for a moment.

“H-hello?” It said quietly. Normally these creatures wouldn’t say anything besides a strangled moan. It was probably some strange Shadow Brute trick. Now Apollyon didn’t have his sword with him, but he did have his fishing rod. He was pretty damn sure he could skewer this one and run like hell if he had to. “Oh, don’t be alarmed.” It said. “My name is Krobus. I’m not like other Shadow Brutes. I simply wish to trade.”

“… Trade? You’re a shop keeper?” Apollyon was still very cautious.

Krobus nodded. “Yes… Um, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but you yourself seem to be… You give off a strange energy for a human.”

“… Yeah, I’m not fully human. According to most magic users I am a demon in human skin.” This Shadow Brute didn’t seem to be hostile but he wasn’t letting his guard down just yet. “So… Who knows you’re here anyway?”

“The Wizard, witch, Junimos and more magically inclined individuals like yourself.” Krobus made a humming sound as it looked at Apollyon’s bandaged hand. “Did you hurt yourself?”

“Pain isn’t something I have much of a concept of these days.” Apollyon flexed his hand, noting that it felt like someone was popping bubble wrap under his skin as his bones slowly reconfigured into what was universally known as a human hand. It would be healed by the end of the day at this rate.

“If you’re trying to blend in and be human you should take better care of yourself.” Said Krobus calmly. “Humans tend to attack and fear the things they do not understand. I’d hate to see you harmed for simply existing.”

“… So I’m guessing you know how it feels?”

“To be hunted and killed on sight? Yeah. You were planning to hurt me too. It’s okay. I understand.”

Now Apollyon felt guilty. “Yeah… Sorry. Most Shadow Brutes see me and attack… You aren’t mad I killed some, are you?”

“Not at all. Death as you see it is quite different for Shadow Brutes. We simply dissipate for a few hours before we pull ourselves together.” Said Krobus calmly. “It’s an evolutionary trait we developed from our ancestors… Though it gets harder to pull ourselves together the older we get and the more times we get killed.” The Shadow Brute’s eyes grew large and glowed for a few moments as a menu made of smoke appeared in front of it. 

Taking the hint, Apollyon looked through it, seeing what Krobus had on offer. He kind of liked the look of the Void egg, stardrop, and return scepter. Unfortunately he only had enough money for the egg. “Evolved? So where did you Shadow Brutes come from anyway?”

“We were creatures that were born from the Void but were given Yoba’s light.” Said Krobus. That was something new that Apollyon hadn’t heard of before. As far as he knew everything that was born of the Void was forever devoid of Yoba’s light. Just their existence alone in a world created by Yoba was an unforgivable act of perversion. “Through Yoba’s light we were able to live and coexist in this world.”

“Is that even possible? For a Void creature to be given Yoba’s light?”

“We Shadow Brutes believe that Yoba themselves was once a Void creature. They just possess the ability to create light and life.” Said Krobus. “But I know many humans believe Yoba was created separate from the Void. They want to believe in a completely divine being but the truth is if there was such a creature in existence then there would be no need for this world. Everything would be perfect and all would be lovingly worshiping Yoba. Only a flawed being could create a world of perfect and flawed creations to exist in this perfect and flawed world.”

Apollyon stared at Krobus completely dumbfounded for a few minutes. Truly they were wise beyond their years. “You know, I didn’t expect to have this kind of religiously philosophical discussion with someone today.”

Krobus shrugged. “I guess, but you must admit it does give monsters and those who manage to escape the Void some small semblance of hope.” The monster seemed very content in his own beliefs. “So don’t be sad. Even if you can’t love yourself, Yoba loves you. Don’t be sad, even if the people of this world turn against you, Yoba is on your side. Don’t be sad. Even if the world won’t forgive you, Yoba will forgive you.”

“That some kind of prayer?” Asked Apollyon. “Can I have a void egg?”

Krobus blinked and a void egg appeared in Apollyon’s hands. His wallet also felt a little lighter. “I guess you could say it is a mix between prayer and reassurance that we have lives worth living. I can only assume someone such as yourself needs words like that once in a while.”

“Alright.” He turned the egg over in his hand a few times and decided to make his way out of the sewer. 

“Please come back soon.” Said Krobus. “I’d be happy to sell you more things or talk some more. I haven’t met someone fresh from the Void before. It is, interesting.”

Apollyon nodded a little and headed out. He went out the way he came and ended up back in Cindersap forest. He sat under a tree and looked out to sea. Krobus had given him a lot to think about. It seemed weird for a thing that originally came from the Void to worship Yoba. If something like that could believe Yoba cared about them did he even stand a chance and some kind of redemption? He didn’t know.

His whole life he had been told he was some abominable monster by practically everyone that knew his true nature but his mother. She would hold him and tell him he was special. That Yoba didn’t care where he came from as long as he was a good person. The rest of humanity didn’t share the same views.

Maybe if what Krobus said was true, then maybe he had been wrong about himself. Maybe there were some things he had been putting off because of his own preconceived prejudice? But what exactly? The answer was pretty obvious when he gave himself a few seconds to actually think about it, relationships. What kind of relationship could he feasibly have with a human anyway, and what human would want him?

Well he already had half the answer to that. Sebastian allegedly liked him, according to Abigail and Sam anyway, and Seb already knew he was a demon. So there wasn’t really any huge and nasty surprises there. He also did think Sebastian was a pretty cute looking guy and was more than happy to learn more about him. He really could go for it and actually ask Sebastian out.

He blushed at all the couple thoughts that came to his mind. Mostly innocent things like watching TV together, cooking together, waking up next to each other, hell even holding hands made his stomach flutter in ways it hadn’t in a while. It was pleasant in so many ways. Though before he actually asks Sebastian if he’s interested in dating though, he would need to hang out with him a little more to make sure they worked well together. Then again, after hammering in that he could never have that kind of a relationship with a human his whole life, could he even be anyone’s boyfriend at this point?

He also technically had some kind of a hit out on him and could technically be murdered any day now, but that was kind of neither here nor there for him at this point. Life was not that that good for a demon like him.

***

Much to Sebastian’s surprise, he had gotten a letter. It was left on the kitchen table when he went up to get his coffee late in the morning. It was in some weird looking envelope that kind of looked like it was made from recycled paper, and the ink that was used to write his name on it seemed rather fancy with their handwriting.

He sat at the table and opened the letter. It was some fancy paper. The only real way he could describe it was that it looked like the shades of blue that accompanied the setting sun and the ink was golden. He hadn’t ever gotten a letter like this before.

_Dear Sebastian ___  
_My sources tell me you’ve caught the eye of someone ‘special’ in our community. I hope that you will find the enclosed protection charm useful as your relationship moves forward. If you have any questions please feel free to visit me. __-M. Rasmodius, Wizard.___

________ _ _ _ _

Confused, Sebastian tipped the envelope upside down and out tumbled a small pendant. He picked it up and inspected it. For what it was it was pretty small and seemed to be made from animal bone. On one side there was some kind of pentagram carved into it and on the back was a circle of tiny runic symbols around the symbol of Yoba.

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“… The fuck?” He took out his phone and took a photo of the pendant, both front and back, and set it to his occult expert, Abigail. Seconds later she messaged him and let him know that she was going to be there ASAP.

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He walked back to his room with all important things in hand and waited for her to show up. About half an hour later he could hear the muffled sounds of Abby quickly exchanging pleasantries with Robin before she barreled down the stairs and almost tripped over her own two feet.

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“Ack!” She squawked as she adjusted her backpack. “Okay, I made it. Where did you get the thingy?”

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Sebastian shrugged and tossed it to her. “Wizard gave it to me.”

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Abby gasped and dived for the charm, easily catching it. “The Wizard? The weird loner guy that lives in the tower that may or may not be an actual wizard?” She held the charm up to the dim light of the basement and hummed a little. “… What did he say to you?”

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“Nothing. He sent it to me in a letter.” He passed her the letter and let her read it. While she read it he finished off the last of his coffee. Nothing was better than a strong bitter brew when you first got up.

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“Huh… Interesting…” Abby sat on the couch and took her book on occult rituals and spells out of her bag and started to look through it. “This is probably going to take a while… But what did the Wizard mean by you catching the eye of a special someone? He’s gotta mean Apollyon, right? Who else could it be?”

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Sebastian rolled his eyes and started checking his emails. He had no work today. No clients. But if he pretended he was working Abby might shut it for a few minutes and let him be. “He’s a weirdo. I just called you here so you could figure out what that charm thing is before I toss it. I don’t need any dumb magic charm.”

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Abby pouted at that. “Sebastian, the spirits are not folks you should piss off and annoy. Magic is real and if the Wizard really is a wizard he’s given you a real genuine magical artifact… And apparently this specific pentagram either repels or traps demons… and or bad spirits.”

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“Thought you were an expert on this stuff? That’s why I called you for.”

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Abby rolled her eyes. “Seb, not all magic is the same. You have so many different branches with so many different religions both pagan and universally recognized by modern times as actual religion. I’m just someone with a basic knowledge on this stuff…” She rolled the pendant in her hand, looking frustrated. “At least I know the difference between at least five different Western pagan magic’s and stuff… Can tell the difference between a death curse and a good luck charm…”

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Sebastian sighed a little, running his fingers through his hair. “Look, this kind of stuff is all gibberish to me. Try not to take much offence, okay?”

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“Fine. Want to know what the back part of the pendant is? I know what is.”

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“Sure.”

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“It’s a good luck charm. The first three runes at the top mean light, the ones at the bottom mean purity, and the ones on the sides mean balance. The symbol of Yoba means this is meant to give off similar affects to a holy relic, though it’s probably not as good as a real one because real ones are blessed and stuff.”

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“So I got a semi holy relic that gives me luck and wards off demons? That wizard guy is weird.”

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Abby shrugged and continued to look through her book. “I guess, but you don’t just give semi holy demon dispelling charms to just anyone for no reason. Semi holy relics are actually very hard to make. Can take several days meditation and fasting to get it up to snuff.”

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“Fasting? Really?”

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“There is always a proper way to do things and you can’t just back out when you do.” Informed Abby. “Most times if you back out halfway through it can be a million times as deadly as when you start. Though that’s mainly for rituals and stuff…” She hummed a little and turned the charm in her hand. “You should probably keep this. Keep it in your pocket or something. You can never have too many good luck charms… Now I feel like making paper charms.”

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Sebastian sighed a little. The last time Abby went on a charm making binge she ended up randomly sticking paper charms to doors and walls around town. Lewis was not pleased about it and considered it mild vandalism. Then again so did a lot of the older residents of the town, mainly George.

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“If I promise to keep the weird charm will you not go crazy and make a million of those charms again?” He asked. He really didn’t want to wake up one morning to find his door plastered with them and Demetrius asking if he’d found some new religion.

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Abby thought for a moment. “Hmm, okay. Keep it on you and I’ll not plaster your door with charms… So…”

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“So?”

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“What’s new with you besides the charm thing? You gonna ask the farmer out?” She tossed the pendant back at him.

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He caught it and slipped it into his pocket. “… Look, hypothetically even if I did like him I don’t think he’s shown much interest in me anyway.”

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She rolled her eyes. “Well maybe he hasn’t shown any interest in you because you don’t show any interest in him?”

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“Not true we-” Sebastian quickly shut his mouth. He didn’t really want to go talking about their little bonding moment in the secret woods. Unfortunately he had captured Abby’s interest and she now eagerly awaited him to continue. He’d just give her the bear minimum so she’d at least stop looking at him with those excited, pleading eyes. “We went to the secret woods a few nights ago. We talked. It was nice.”

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Abby was positively beaming at this point. “Oh really? Do you think that you two could be something more if you like got together and actually talked some more? Hypothetically?”

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“Hypothetically? … Yes.” Yoba have mercy Apollyon was weird as fuck and his family life was kind of fucked, but he was a nice guy and made him feel all kinds of strange and obscure emotions he could associate with feelings of possible love. It was a nice feeling.

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“Seriously, can I help you guys out in anyway? Hypothetically? Asked Abby. “You two look really cute together and you’d probably make a good pair. Hypothetically speaking of course.”

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Sebastian shrugged as an email suddenly popped up. Looked like he did have a job today after all. “I’ll think about it. Now go, I have work to do.” He watched as she sighed dramatically and left. He really hoped that whatever else her plans were for helping weren’t going to be something crazy.

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	21. Fall rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who has two thumbs, insomnia, and couldn't stop writing? This clown, right here. Enjoy another chapter so early and stuff and junk. Comment and Kudos please :D

It was just another typical day at Apollyon’s farm. He cleared the weeds and rocks away. He was planning on planting some wheat and planned on making lots of beer in the winter. But as his hoe pierced the dirt it made a strange squelching noise, like he’d hit wet mud. Pulling it back to till the soil didn’t seem to make the matter better either. It sounded like he was ripping up something fibrous with a lot of roots.

Much to his surprise a small puddle of water bubbled up to the surface. It was kind of rusty coloured and Apollyon didn’t think too much about it. He was tilling near his pond to there was a chance it was just some excess ground water or something. He’d have to try and invest in some rice seeds as this rate.

He thrust the hoe into the ground and pulled back, struggling a little when it got caught on a rock. With some effort he ripped a large white rock out of the ground. Surprised by its colour, Apollyon picked it up. He instantly regretted it. It wasn’t some weird white stone, it was a vertebra. Not just any old vertebra, this one felt damp and warm, like it had just been removed from a body. He could clearly see fresh marrow oozing slightly through the centrum.

Apollyon gasped in shock and stumbled, falling flat on his ass. He watched the bone sail through the air and land in the pond with a dense thunk. When did the pond water turn black? He tried to stand but he couldn’t. Looking down all he could do was gasp in horror as the redish water that had been welling up from the soil was very steadily climbing up his limbs and pulling him down. Down into the black, inky void.

He struggled to try and get away. Eventually he managed to pull an arm free, but much to his dismay he had ripped off much of his skin like it was tissue paper. Beneath his pale skin was the unmistakable black hue of a Shadow Brute’s skin, but this was shinier and mimicking muscles.

However he didn’t have much time to dwell on this as the redish water was starting to drag him towards the pond. Apollyon struggled and tried to dig his nails into earth, but it was too soft. He got pulled into the pond. He didn’t want to be back here. He didn’t want to get dragged back there. It was dark and scary. But it didn’t matter. He got pulled under and he felt his skin peel away. His last remnants of his humanity were gone. He had nothing left.

***

Apollyon woke up with a gasp. He flailed and fell out of the bed while simultaneously flinging Goblin across the room with his leg. She screeched and hissed at him for waking her up and dashed off to the kitchen.

“… Sorry Goblin.” He sighed a little and got up. He could hear the sound of soft rain on the roof. It sounded kind of nice.

He fed Goblin and fed the chickens. They little fluff balls were growing up so quickly and were starting to give him eggs. Which was good. He was able to make mayonnaise and fry an egg up every other day. He wondered what he was going to do today, mining or fishing? He was already very good with mining so today was probably going to be a fishing day.

He put on a thick coat and grabbed his fishing rod. He didn’t want to dwell too much on his dream. It almost felt like a premonition. Since talking with Gadreel he’d started to feel slightly apprehensive whenever he went out onto his farm. It made him feel a little sick. He didn’t want to go back. He wanted to stay here. It was warm and bright here and full of so many weird and interesting things. The Void was stagnate. It didn’t change. It scared him. He liked seeing things change and he couldn’t do that if he was back there. 

He trudged onto the wet sand and walked across the wooden bridge near Elliot’s house. He’d collect some coral or shells too. They sold for an okay amount. As he collected things someone caught his attention. For a moment he thought it might have been Elliot, but no. It was some weird looking old looking man wearing thin blue clothes, a wide brim brown hat and boots.

“… Hello?”

The man nodded a little at Apollyon. “Hello there. I’ve got this old amulet to sell… but something tells me yer not ready for it lad.”

That both confused and annoyed Apollyon. “Right… What amulet?”

“A mermaid pendant lad.” He hummed happily and rocked slightly on the balls of his feet. “Give your lover one of them and you’re asking them to marry you.”

“Oh, so it’s like an engagement ring back in Zuzu city?”

“A what?”

“… Must be a regional thing…” Apollyon sighed a little and rubbed his hands together to keep them warm. “So, I’m Apollyon. I haven’t seen you around before.”

A lopsided grin made its way onto the man’s face. “Folks around here call me the Old Mariner.”

“And you just stand out here in the rain telling people you’re not going to give them a mermaid pendant?”

He shrugged. “I only talk to the folks I feel have love brimming in their hearts. It just so happens that I feel a young strapping lad like yourself has a small spark of love within yer chest.”

“… Alright. So why a mermaid pendant anyway? Why not something more practical? Like a ring? Like a normal person?” Sure Apollyon should have just bid the Old Mariner fair well and walked away, but he seemed nice enough, and old people usually had interesting stories.

“It’s an old tale lad… You see, years and Years ago Pelican Town was just a fishing village and a small port that a few ships would dock in to trade.” Said the Old Mariner. “A young lad used to work the docks here making sure that the visiting sailors had their food and drink supplies all ready to go to the next major port. This young lad found a merperson.”

Not that Apollyon didn’t believe in merpeople, but at the same time he was pretty sure merpeople didn’t like humans that much. “Really? A merperson?”

The Old Mariner nodded. “Ay lad. Over the course of a year they two fell deeply in love. The young lad couldn’t put a wedding ring on the merperson’s webbed finger so they made a necklace using a bright blue shell. It was the same shade of blue as the sky in midday and shone like bright like the ocean on a calm sunny day.” He looked wistfully out to sea at that remark, as if remembering something from long ago. “So the merperson accepted it and dragged the lad down into the sea.”

“They killed him?” Asked Apollyon in shock. Okay fine, some versions of merpeople stories ended with someone getting dragged into the ocean to get eaten. It baffled him that the town would let such a story dictate how they propose to each other.

The man just laughed at Apollyon’s conclusion. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. Do you really think the merperson would go and drown someone they supposedly loved just because it was a human?”

Apollyon shrugged. “It’s just in their nature I guess. You shouldn’t apply human emotions to something that isn’t human… They were probably playing the long game anyway.”

“Are you?”

“What?”

“Nothing lad. Nothing at all…” He sighed a little and tipped his hat forward slightly. “Now if you’re going to be fishing today, I might suggest fishing by Willy’s shop. Specifically that large rock. The fish are biting a lot more over there than over this way.”

“Oh, thanks Old Mariner. See you around.” Apollyon waved to him and happily headed over to Willy’s shop. Hopefully today he could catch an eel or something. He could just imagine what would happen when he threw one of those at a Junimo. They would probably freak out and flail and squeal if they got hit with one of those things.

Walking out onto dock Apollyon was almost surprised to see Sebastian standing at the edge and looking out to sea. It had been a little while since Apollyon had seen him. He still had doubts if he could move forward with asking Sebastian if he wanted to go out with him. There were still risks with being with someone like him, and that wasn’t even counting the fact that Sebastian might not even want to go out with him because of how heavy handed Abigail and Sam had allegedly been.

Romance was hard. Apollyon cast out his line and watched the bobber bob in the water. Maybe after he caught a few fish he’d have enough courage to ask if he wanted to come over to his place to watch a movie or something.

***

Sebastian was just going to enjoy a nice quiet day to himself at the beach. Who else was going to do it? It was raining and everyone else seemed to hate the rain. It had rained a few dozen times since Apollyon had moved to Stardew Valley and to be perfectly honest Sebastian had wondered if the farmer would come out here and cry to the sea again.

If he’d had known then what he knew now about the farmer he probably would have offered him a drink or something similar at the Saloon that night, or just some human company in general. He sighed a little. That was the past. He had to look towards the future.

Speaking of the future, Sebastian was going to head up to the spa after this and warm up. Sure, it was all well and good to stand in the rain in Spring or Summer, but it was cold in the Fall. He needed to warm up a little after standing out in the cold all day. Plus it meant he could have more time alone to himself.

He turned to leave and was surprised to see that Apollyon was right there fishing quietly. Did he remember when he told Apollyon that rainy days were meant to be enjoyed alone or something? That was… it was actually kind of nice that he remembered.

He walked over just as Apollyon managed to pull up a can of joja cola. “… Rough day fishing?”

Apollyon looked over at Sebastian and smiled a little. “Yeah. Hope I didn’t mess up your alone time. I was trying to catch an eel… It hasn’t been working out too well.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…” Apollyon stretched and cast out his line again. “I’m gonna try at least one more time to catch an eel today… Um, when I’m done do you want to come back to my place and watch a movie?”

“I was actually going to go up to the spa.”

“Oh, sorry… I’ll let you get on with your day then.”

Sebastian frowned a little. Had he been too subtle? He didn’t think so. “Um, you can come with me if you like…”

Apollyon looked a little surprised, but he smiled at him anyway. “Sure. Sounds nice.” Suddenly something tugged on his line and Apollyon fished up a piece of drift wood. “… Son of a… Okay fuck it. Let’s go to the spa.”

The two walked up to the spa in relative silence. When they got up to Sebastian’s house he ducked in to garb his swimmers. Apollyon went ahead of him. Possibly to go back home and grab his own stuff. It had been a while since he’d gone to the spa with anyone and he was feeling a little anxious about it, as stupid as that sounded. It wasn’t as though he wasn’t okay with people seeing most of his body, high school locker rooms kind of had that effect on him, but he knew if they changed together he might look at weird out Apollyon.

Luckily for him when he got there Apollyon was still not there, and from the sound of it Alex wasn’t in the gym area either. There always seemed to be a fifty fifty chance that Alex was going to be in there during the Fall. He changed into his green board shorts and quickly headed to the spa. 

Much to his surprise Apollyon was already in there. He was off near a far edge of the spa bath. He’d sunk down into the water deep enough so that only everything above his mouth was above the water. He nodded a little when he saw Sebastian enter.

Sebastian got in and moved closer to the other, stopping when he was a reasonable distance away. They stayed silent for a while, both just enjoying the silence together. It was strange, but it felt good to sit in silence with him. He didn’t feel like he needed to feel the air with any noise. It was nice.

After some indeterminate amount of time, Apollyon moved so his head was just above the water. “Thanks for asking me here. I would have just gone home.”

“Don’t mention it. A bath is always nice after getting rained on.”

“Yeah…” Apollyon glanced over at Sebastian for a moment. “Hey, um do you want to come over to my place after and watch a movie after this? My TV is a piece of shit, but I have a DVD player and like, seven DVDs… You can take your pick of them if you like.”

Sebastian smiled a little at his slight ramblings. “Yeah, sure. What movies do you have?”

“The original The Thing, Life or Brian, GATTACA, Blade Runner, Soylent Green, Logan’s Run and Westworld.” Listed Apollyon.

He was impressed with the small collection of sci-fi movies he had. Minus the Life of Brian. “You have GATTACA? Neat. Haven’t seen that one in years.”

Apollyon gave Sebastian a strange look. “You like sci-fi?”

“Who doesn’t?”

Apollyon smiled a little and actually sat up properly in the water so his chest was now above the water. “I really liked Uma Thurman’s character. Sure she was a victim of bad female stereotypes but I still liked her a lot.”

“Yeah, me too. Hell, I think I’d go straight for Uma.”

“I’d pay her to execute me a la Kill Bill volume 1 black and white yakuza army style.” Said Apollyon. “Hell, I would even settle for Kill Bill volume 2 black mamba in the briefcase full of money. What a way to go.”

Sebastian laughed a little. “She could stab me with a knife and I’d say thank you. Fuck it, her or Sigourney Weaver.”

“Sigourney Weaver could snap my neck and if I came back as a ghost I wouldn’t even be mad.”

“Me either.” He looked over at Apollyon, surprised to see the amount of pale scars that were visible on his shoulders and chest. There were a lot more than what he should have had from a jellyfish sting. It reminded Sebastian a little of that DIY resin jewelry where the resin has some glow in the dark properties. It was beautiful.

“…” Apollyon noticed his staring and quickly slipped back down into the water. He looked embarrassed and kind of nervous. “I um… Emily knitted Goblin a sweater. She hates it but wears it because it keeps her warm. First time I put it on her she fell over, screeched and refused to move.”

Sebastian nodded a little. “Sounds like something that hairless testical would do.”

He laughed at that. “You don’t need to be so mean to her. She might look like a hairless old man testical, but she’s like a hot water bottle when it’s really cold at night.”

“Alright.” After that the pair fell into a silence once again. This time it was slightly more awkward. He wanted to say something to remedy the situation a little. “I’m not going to ask how you got all those scars but they don’t look as horrible as you think they do.”

“Thank you… Hey Sebastian? I um… I kind of like you…” As soon as those words left his lips Apollyon slipped further into the water so he was back to only have his nose above water. He looked embarrassed and kind of… guilty?

But he didn’t have time to think about that, Apollyon said he liked him. He actually liked him. “I like you too… And um, it’s not because you’re the only guy I know who isn’t straight here…”

“Same… I think you’re cute and handsome…” Said Apollyon quietly. “And you’re obviously really smart. People mentioned you’re a programmer. I could never do something like that, and you’re good with machines too… I couldn’t even get the bus running again…”

He felt flattered that Apollyon thought he was smart. “Well you’re smart too. You might not be good at programming, but I know I’d never be good at farming. I know jack shit about what to plant and how best to take care of animals.” Sebastian moved a little closer to Apollyon, pleased when he saw that Apollyon didn’t move away. “… Look at me for a second?”

“…” Apollyon glanced at Sebastian and he took the opportunity to quickly kiss his cheek. A slightly bold move on Sebastian’s part, but he liked Apollyon too and thought a kiss on the cheek would have been better than a kiss on the lips. Apollyon made a strange strangled noise as they sank deeper into the water until they were completely submerged.

“Hey!” Sebastian quickly pulled him back up. “… You okay?”

“Y-yeah.” Squeaked Apollyon. “… Do you still want to come over and watch a movie?”

“Yeah.”

Apollyon smiled a little. “Cool.”


	22. Movie night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone hope you enjoy this chapter remember to kudos and comment when you can :3

Once they were done at the spa, the two of them walked back to Hellfire farm and settled down to watch GATTACA and marvel at the both the good acting and very terrible acting of the main cast while arguing about the ethics of having genetically perfect babies. It was kind of nice to sit so close to the other on the couch.

“All genetic diseases would be gone that way.” Said Sebastian. “No more of that harlequin skin disease thing. Can’t say not having that wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“True, getting rid of major genetic diseases would be good… However what’s to stop people trying to change lesser not life threatening genetic disorders like any that say… something that changes the proportions of your face or something?” Countered Apollyon. “Where would it end? Besides don’t we need mutations to evolve the species or something?”

“Fair enough, but it would be good to end really bad genetic diseases.”

“Are we really going to get super into human morals over an old sci-fi movie?”

“Nah. Want to discuss the symbolism of the drowning scenes?”

“Fuck no.” The two of them continued to watch the movie all the way to the end. Somehow by the middle of the climactic chase scene Sebastian was leaning against his arm with his head on Apollyon’s shoulder.

It made the heat rise in his cheeks ever so slightly. He wasn’t used to this kind of affection from someone else. He also had this horrible feeling in his guts just twisting around. He knew what this feeling was. Selfish. That’s how Apollyon felt. He felt selfish and cruel. Was it because he actually wanted this kind of romantic relationship with someone and just happened to choose Sebastian because he had similar feelings for him? Maybe it was because he wasn’t sure if Gadreel would be good on his threat and actually murder him and he just wanted to have some kind of romantic relationship now just in case this was his last chance?

Either option was bad. He was just playing with Sebastian’s emotions if that was the case he was worse than he thought. Sure he had manipulated people before but manipulating using romantic interest? That was just something he didn’t do. Were they even officially boyfriends now anyway? He had no idea.

“Hey, you okay?” Asked Sebastian. 

“… I’m just thinking… I haven’t really been in a serious relationship before. I don’t really know how I’m meant to act… or what we’re meant to do…”

“It’s fine. I haven’t really been in any serious relationships either.”

“Not even Sarah-Ann?”

Sebastian shot up and looked completely shook. “Who told you about-? Abigail and Sam?”

“Abigail and Sam.”

Sebastian sighed dramatically and sank back into the couch. “Look, it was high school and being anything but straight wasn’t smiled upon. If you were a guy and wanted anything other than pussy you were going to get your ass beat by some shit head that thought you were staring at his ass in the locker room.”

“Fair enough.” Apollyon hadn’t been in one school long enough for something like that to happen to him.

The raven haired man nodded a little. “Sarah-Ann… I liked her kind of… I just assumed that all guys felt the same way I felt about girls and I kind of hoped that maybe I was bisexual, because I knew I liked guys and if I was bi I could at least pass for straight and have all those normal things… But no. I kind of forced myself to have sex with her and it was pretty awful. Not just because it was my first time, but just… everything felt wrong… She was too… soft…”

Apollyon snorted. “Soft? Really?”

“Well I don’t really know how else to describe it…” Muttered Sebastian. “She looked fine and everything and it wasn’t like she was wrong in anyway, but I just… She felt wrong to me. It felt wrong… And then she broke up with me and started dating my guy crush and that fucking sucked…”

“Hey, it’s fine.” He gently squeezed Sebastian’s hand, smiling a little. “These things happen. No need to beat yourself up over exes. I was just wondering if you had dating experience. That’s all.”

“… We went on a few dates. Movies and junk like that.”

A small smile made its way onto Apollyon’s lips. “So would this count as a date? We’re watching movies and junk.”

“Yeah, I guess it would… So we’re officially dating now?”

“I guess…”

“So I guess that means we’re boyfriends now?”

Apollyon blushed a little at that word, and the feeling of guilt twisted deep within his guts once again. “I guess so… Do you want to stay the night?” He didn’t know why he asked. Would Sebastian think he wanted to have sex or something if he asked? Yoba have mercy on his soul.

Sebastian looked surprised for a moment before he smiled a little and nodded. “Sure.”

***

The whole evening had gone kind of strange for Sebastian. He hadn’t expected to actually tell Apollyon that he liked him, same with finding out the feeling was mutual. Now they were in his house, watching a movie, Apollyon asked if he wanted to stay over, and he said yes. He honestly didn’t know what to expect. Apollyon had said he didn’t have serious relationships before. Did he want to have sex?

They stayed seated on the couch watching the rest of the movie in silence. There was now a strange sense of tension in the air that hadn’t been there before. Maybe he had suggested that they were boyfriends too quickly? Yoba, when did he become so damn ballsy?

Once the move was over Apollyon got up and walked into his room. He came back out with a pair of blue sweat pants and a pale green shirt. “Here, I think these will fit you. You can change in the bedroom.”

“Thanks.” Sebastian took the clothes and got changed in Apollyon’s room. Something he noticed immediately upon entering was that it looked really bland. There was nothing personal. He would have assumed that it was unlived in if it wasn’t for the fact that the bed was messy, calendar, and there was a handmade chest in the corner. Seeing as how there was part of a sleeve sticking out of it he assumed that was where Apollyon kept his clothes.

Sebastian got changed and sat on the bed. The clothes were a little big on him, but they fitted comfortably enough. They smelled a little like Apollyon too; earthy with a hint of whatever detergent he used to wash his clothes. It was nice and made his stomach flutter a little. There was something kind of nice about it.

He fished his phone out of his pants pocket and quickly sent him mum a text, letter her know where he was, when something caught his eye on the calendar. For some reason Apollyon had stuck a little pumpkin sticker next to Spirit’s Eve. Seemed like something Apollyon would like.

He walked out of the bedroom and watched Apollyon walk around the kitchen putting things away. “You excited for Spirit’s Eve?” He asked.

“Hmm?”

“Spirit’s Eve.” Said Sebastian. “You have it marked on your calendar.”

Apollyon shrugged and continued to do what he was doing. “It’s the day before holy magic replenishes. It’s at its weakest then and darker energy is theoretically at its highest. In theory that night is when dark spirits from the Void creep into this world to either torment humans or drag them back into the Void for nefarious means.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at that statement. “Nefarious means?”

“Nefarious by human standards.” Clarified Apollyon. “Most demons regard humans the same way humans regard insects; insignificant and kind of gross looking. Smaller, more insidious creatures are like small children with magnified glasses that want to poke and prod and pull the legs off insects for fun. If a human is dragged into the void they won’t die immediately but they will beg for it till whatever has them decides to kill them.” He sighed sadly. “Demons that pull people in are skilled at keeping them alive far beyond what is physically possible… But luckily for everyone those kind of things hardly happen anymore.”

“… Right.” Was Apollyon still harping on about this demon stuff? “So um…”

“Right, you’re probably tired… You can take the bed, I’ll take the couch.”

That was, unexpectedly gentlemanly of him. “You sure? It’s your house.”

He smiled kindly at Sebastian. “I’m sure. I trust you not to mess with my stuff.”

“Thanks, but don’t you need to get changed too?”

“Nah, I usually either sleep in whatever I’m wearing or in my underwear.”

“Ah…”

“Yeah…” He finished up in the kitchen and went over to the couch, rearranging the cushions a little. “Just be a little careful. Goblin might try and hit you a few times if she wants food or something.”

“Alright. Night I guess?”

“Night.”

“…” Sebastian watched Apollyon move to lie down on the couch. He sighed a little and walked back into the bedroom, making himself comfortable in Apollyon’s bed. It felt strange being here. He had assumed that they would at least be sharing a bed together tonight. They didn’t have to do anything. It wasn’t mandatory that they had to do something just because they decided that they were going to start dating.

He felt something jump onto the bed and glanced down to see the hairless testicle that Apollyon called Goblin. She was wearing some woolen jumper made from several eye bleeding colours. The cat didn’t look too impressed that Sebastian was there, but ignored him in favour of curling up near his legs. Sebastian didn’t know how to feel about this. He decided to try and ignore it and get some sleep. Now that he had settled in he was starting to feel that this bed was way too big for just one person to use.

He got in a few hours of sleep before he got woken up to Goblin squishing her paws into his face and making mildly alarmed noises. “Mrrrrow…” She said. “Mrrrrow…”

Groaning in annoyance, Sebastian pushed her away. “Let me sleep you weird testicle thing.”

Not surprisingly, Goblin didn’t seem to like being called a testical and quickly hit Sebastian’s nose several times before bolting towards the bedroom door. She looked over her shoulder, like she wanted him to follow her. “Meow!”

Sebastian was about to throw a pillow at the offending feline when he heard something. It was quiet, but it sounded like wheezing and gnawing. Curious, Sebastian slowly got up and crept towards the sound. The TV was on in the lounge room but the sound was off. Goblin darted past Sebastian’s legs and walked by the couch, flattening her ears against her head and arching her back slightly. If she had fur Sebastian was sure that she would be puffing up right now.

Curious as to what she could possibly be freaking out about, Sebastian looked over at Apollyon on the couch. The man was sleeping but he was sweating profusely and all tensed up as one hand clutched his forearm with white knuckles while the other gripped the arm rest. He was grinding his teeth together, letting out a small raspy wheeze whenever his jaw would unclench. Suddenly Apollyon convulsed and threw himself off the couch and onto the floor. The sudden movement made Goblin bolt out of the room, startled Sebastian, and woke up Apollyon.

He quickly sat up and looked at Sebastian. His face went bright red when he realized that the other was there. “Oh um… Hey there… Did I wake you up?”

“Goblin did…” He sat down on the couch and waited for Apollyon to sit up next to him. It took a few moments but Apollyon eventually sat next to Sebastian. “Are you okay?”

“… Yeah. I just…” Apollyon sighed. He looked really damn tired. “Lately I’ve been having pretty awful dreams… I always wake up like someone’s electrocuted me.”

Sebastian nodded a little. “So is that why you didn’t want to share a bed? In case you have some dream and kick me out or something?”

Apollyon smiled sheepishly. “Wouldn’t you feel bad about sharing a bed with someone if you didn’t know if you would lash out at them because of a bad dream?”

“…” Sebastian hesitantly put his hand onto Apollyon’s. He sounded like he needed to talk, and being friends with people like Sam and Abigail he was good at listening. “Want to talk about it?”

The other man hesitated for a moment. “Do you know what it feels like to cut yourself? Not like a paper cut or a cut with a kitchen knife when you’re cooking. I mean like a long, quick, deliberate slash. Something you don’t even realize has happened until you see the blood and feel the sting?”

“… Can’t say I can.”

“Yeah… why would you?” He laughed a little and brought his hands up to his face. “Anyway, to cut a long story short I’m running down some endless alleyway and some invisible creep slices me up and pulls me into the darkness… But I manage to pull myself out of the darkness. Just long enough to realize that everything below my ribcage has been ripped away.”

“… I see.” That just kind of seemed like a standard nightmare to Sebastian but it really seemed to affect Apollyon in a very negative way. The poor guy was trembling slightly. He sighed heavily and stood up, pulling Apollyon to his feet. “Come on. We’re both going to bed.”

Apollyon stared at Sebastian with concern clearly painted on his face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and practically dragged the other male into the bedroom, pushing him onto the bed before getting in next to him. “If you’re so worried about kicking my ass out of the bed maybe that will be enough to stop you from actually doing it.”

“… Okay.” Apollyon got into the bed but stayed right on the edge, trying to take up as little room as possible. He reminded Sebastian of that damn walking testicle.

“You can move a little closer you know.” Said Sebastian. “I’m not going to bite you for getting closer.”

Apollyon pouted a little. “Look, the last time I shared a bed with someone it was to fuck and by the time I woke up they were gone and so was all the cash in my wallet. So excuse me if I don’t really know if you expect to do something now that we’re in the same bed.”

“… Apollyon. It’s late and I’m kind of tired. I don’t want to do anything sexual. Just get your ass over here. Your bed is too big and it’s kind of cold.”

“Do you need another blanket?”

“Not if you get over here.” Reluctantly Apollyon moved closer and Sebastian wrapped an arm around him, holding him in a protective way. Sebastian could practically feel the heat rising in Apollyon’s face. Did this really embarrass him so much? It was kind of cute. Hopefully they could both sleep a little easier now. “Good night Apollyon.”

“Good night Sebastian.”


	23. Shark teeth and poetry clubs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you feel that? I'm getting closer and closer to dropping the hammer. Just a few more chapters to go... Totally not adding fuel to the hype train no sir... Hope you all enjoy and please kudos and comment when possible :D

Apollyon had left early the next day. He left a note for Sebastian and left to go to feed the chickens and catch some fish. He felt a little bad about leaving before Sebastian got up, but he had things to do and Sebastian seemed to like sleeping in.

He sat by the river in Cindersap forest and started to fish. He was attempting to get a catfish. Instead he seemed to be only able to catch tiger trout’s. It annoyed him a lot, but he just had to keep fishing. By about nine or ten in the morning he had a small pile of trout’s and no catfish. Why did the damn Junimos want a catfish anyway? Stupid apple fuckers.

He sat down, leaning against a tree. He was a little tired and hadn’t actually eaten anything today. He didn’t want to wake Sebastian up by accident. The young man just looked so peaceful just lying there in his bed. In his clothes. That thought made him blush a lot. He looked so adorable. When he got up he looked so peaceful wrapped up in his blanket with his mouth opened ever so slightly. It made him want to just lean over and kiss him, but there was no way he was doing that.

Suddenly Green the Junimo popped back into existence and waved up at him. “Hewwo!”

Apollyon could feel a migraine coming on. He opened his mouth to speak and a chunk of trout fell out of his mouth. He looked down at his hands, surprised to see that he had ripped into the belly of a tiger trout without even realizing it. “Huh… Hey there Green. What are you doing here?”

“See fwend!” Green sat next to him and looked up with a very pleased look on its face. “Fwend good?”

“Yeah, I’m alright… Just thinking about stuff. People stuff. You wouldn’t understand.” He contemplated eating the rest of the trout in his hands, but decided against it. He threw the carcass into the water and watched it drift away.

Green watched Apollyon intently. “… Fwend sad?”

“I’m not sad. I’m conflicted.” He looked down at the little apple bastard for a few seconds before deciding to just spill his guts. This thing wasn’t going to tell anyone important anything. “I like Sebastian. In fact I think we are dating now.”

Green clapped his little stick arms together enthusiastically. “Good fwend! Vewy good!”

“Shut up I’m not done yet. I like him and stuff but I am very conflicted. I feel like I’m selfish because Gadreel’s gone and given me up until the feast of the winter star to live.”

That sent Green into a panic. “Gadweel? Who dat? Why hawm you? You good! Hewo! Hewo of vawee! Gadweel bad! Me get poker and poke him!”

While that image was amusing to him, Apollyon didn’t think it was a good idea. “Calm down. Gadreel is… How to explain… He’s part of an eccentric branch of magic users that draw their energy from the Yoba plane. They believe that anything magical that isn’t all good and pure is evil and needs to die and go back to the Void.”

“… But you good! Good fwend!”

“I’m a demon you stupid chew toy.” Muttered Apollyon. “And don’t you see how fucking bad this is? I’m dating Sebastian and there’s a high chance I’m going to get killed… I’m a selfish fuck. I make myself sick.” He cast his line back out into the river and waited for another fish.

“… But fwend good…” Green didn’t seem to understand why someone would want to hurt Apollyon. “How can Junimos help fwend?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Unless you can suddenly turn me from a demon from the Void to a being from the Yoba plane there’s nothing much you can do.”

“… Okay! Junimos help fwend!” Green got up and quickly ran away.

An annoyed groan made its way out his mouth. This was a bad idea. He didn’t know how or why he just knew it was a bad idea. They were going to say or do something that was going to fuck up his world. Not that it wasn’t already fucked up.

He started to pick at his teeth, flicking out a few random scales, bones, and bits of fish flesh. He felt something sharp press into his thumb. He ran his tongue over the point, unsurprised to feel a second tooth starting to force its way out of his gums. It was at the back near his molars so no one was going to freak out any time soon if he smiled and sported a full set of shark teeth. It was strange he was having this kind of physical change, but he chalked that up to what that witch had done to him. 

Apollyon wondered what other changes he was eventually going to undergo and how long he could keep it a secret from everyone. He was already pushing it with how quickly his skin could heal from cuts and scrapes. He also doubted that everyone here was going to be as nice and as understanding as Sebastian when he told them he really was a demon. Everyone would probably freak out if his demonic form decided to split his head open and grown an extra set of fangs.

That was one of the things he didn’t like about his demonic form. He didn’t have much control over it. It always looked vaguely human but since his true demon form was that of some shapeless slug he never really had a consistent form. The during the transformation process back to his human shape it always looked wrong. It was like his body was trying to look human but didn’t have it quite right. 

Apart from how he looked he was starting to develop rather strange eating habits now. This wasn’t the first time he had just started eating a raw fish or uncooked meat in general. A couple of times he had bought food from Pierre’s shop when he was hungry only to realize he’d eaten a whole raw stake by the time he’d reached the bus stop. One time when he was hungry in the mines he had even bitten into one of those giant grubs. Kind of tasted a little like peanut butter.

Suddenly his line started to tug and Apollyon quickly reeled in a… catfish. Joy could not even begin to describe the positive feelings welling up inside Apollyon’s chest at the moment. Finally something that wasn’t a tiger trout.

He quickly gathered his fish and started to make his way back to the community center. He was pretty sure this catfish would finish off at least one bundle. He happened to walk by Leah’s cabin and spotted her and Elliott talking. He hadn’t talked to the two of them very much over the past year, but they seemed like nice enough people. Leah did a lot of art stuff and Elliott was apparently a writer.

As he got closer it sounded like Elliott was having trouble with something. “I just… It’s very perplexing and frustrating. I have an idea of where I want my novel to go, but I have no idea how to get there. Outlining it, no matter which route I take ends up reading as forced and contrived.”

“Maybe you just need a different perspective on things?” Suggested Leah. “Or maybe take up a new hobby of some sort?” She looked over at Apollyon and waved at him. “Hey there farmer. Mind helping us out?”

“… Only if you take a trout each.” Said Apollyon. “I have way too many.”

“Deal. So Elliott is having trouble with his book. If you ask me it sounds like he needs to relax for a bit.”

Elliott sighed, tucking his flowing hair behind his ear. “I find it hard to relax when my manuscript is still stuck within its draft stages.”

Apollyon shrugged. “I’m not really sure what you expect me to do. I kind of just farm and stuff… I don’t really have any hobbies and the only thing I really do to relax is occasionally go up to the spa and sit in the baths… That and sleep. Sleep is good.” Noticing the slightly disappointed look on their faces, Apollyon just started spewing word vomit. “Well since I farm and stuff I find planning where my crops are going to go and stuff. Leah, I’m sure you have smaller personal art projects you work on just for fun. Since you like writing so much why don’t you write a short story or poem when you get stuck? That way even if your novel doesn’t get done you have a collection of works you could possibly publish instead?”

Elliott seemed to like that idea. “Yes, poetry… This could be a good way to vent my frustrations… Perhaps I could think about having a small poetry club at the Library? I’m sure Gunther would be more than happy to allow that.” He shook Apollyon’s hand. “Thank you for this marvelous idea.”

“Um, don’t mention it?” He really didn’t expect Elliott to start some poetry club from his simple suggestion that he just write his own poetry. But he was glad to help. He gave Elliott and Leah a tiger trout before heading up to the community center. He quickly opened the door and threw the catfish in. He smirked a little when he heard several Junimos screech and freak out when they got hit by it.

***

Sebastian woke up at about ten in the morning. He wasn’t surprised to see that Apollyon had gone. As a farmer he probably had a million things he needed to do. He got up, changed back into his clothes from the previous night and headed out to the kitchen to see if Apollyon at least had some coffee.

He noticed the note Apollyon left for him next to a can of instant coffee. It pretty much told him he was going out to do farming stuff and to help himself to anything he had in the fridge. Sebastian wasn’t really that hungry but he decided to at least see what was in the fridge while he was waiting for the water to boil for his coffee.

He had a lot of eggs and mayonnaise in there, along with an axe for some reason. That was really weird. He took that out and put it on the table for Apollyon to find later. Behind the axe was a note stuck to a some meat wrapped in butcher’s paper. It said cook before eating. That was also odd. The farmer was odd. His boyfriend was odd.

“… Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck…” The heat started to rise in his cheeks as he thought about it. They were dating now. He was dating the weird farmer boy. Okay, maybe it was more like the farmer was dating the weird basement troll but still. It made him very happy to think that they were going out now, but there in came one thing he wasn’t really thinking about… He hadn’t come out to anyone besides Abby, Sam and Apollyon. He was pretty sure that Apollyon wouldn’t go around saying they were dating, but he didn’t really know for sure. He needed to find Apollyon now.

He quickly left the house and went to find Apollyon. Yoba he needed to find him soon. There was no way he’d be able to live with himself if Apollyon just told everyone before he had the chance to figure out how he was going to tell people about it. In general people in Pelican Town seemed to be pretty open and welcoming, but he didn’t want to risk it.

He checked around town, up by the caves in the mountains and by the beach. The only place he had left was Cindersap forest. He really needed to get Apollyon’s phone number at some point. That would make this a whole lot easier. As he entered Cindersap forest he happened to see Apollyon. He was with Penny who seemed to be in the middle of teaching Jas and Vincent.

Curious as to what was going on, he got closer. Not enough to make them notice him, but just enough to hear what was going on. It sounded like he was… teaching?

“Country life is about farming and learning to use the things nature has provided for you. I have to get up early every day,” said Apollyon. “I need to water my crops and feed my animals since that’s my main income. Anyone want to take a guess at what I have on my farm? Vincent?”

“Dinosaurs!” Said they boy enthusiastically.

Penny gave Vincent a sympathetic smile. “Vincent, I really doubt Mr Apollyon has dinosaurs on his farm.”

“Mr Apollyon has chickens on his farm.” Said Jas. “He bought some off Aunt Marine.”

Apollyon chuckled a little. “Yep. I got two chickens. One brown hen and one white hen. I have named them Butter and Crispy. Anyway, the valley’s soil is ideal for growing delicious vegetables. Since I sell a lot of my crops to Pierre I can bet that your mum and your aunt have bought something I’ve grown for your dinner.”

Vincent put his hand up. Penny smiled at him. “Yes Vincent?”

“Um, farmer Apollyon? If I eat your veggies will I grow up strong like my big brother Sam?”

Apollyon pulled a face like he was thinking. “Hmm, I think if you eat my veggies along with a good balance of other yummy foods like meats and cheeses you’ll grow up to be just as strong as Sam… In fact you two look like you’re bigger and stronger since I first saw you when I moved into the valley at the start of the year.”

The children giggled at this and flexed their tiny biceps. Penny chuckled a little and dismissed the children so they could go and play for a bit. The children had run off to the river to play and look at fish. Sebastian was about to make his move and walk over when Penny started talking again. “It’s a lot of work to take care of these kids… But I don’t really mind. I enjoy seeing them learn and hopefully I can help them grow up to be good people. Would you ever want to be a parent, Apollyon?”

For some reason that question made Sebastian’s chest tighten a little. But the thing that really made him feel ill was the possibility of his answer, whatever it may be. He felt sick.

Apollyon just chuckled a little. “Ah well, I guess so. It’s a natural urge… But I don’t think I’d be able to care for something so pure and innocent. That’s just how I am.”

She smiled a little at him. “I’m sure you’re going to be a good parent someday. You’re a really nice and sweet person.”

Apollyon laughed a little at that. “Aw, thanks Penny. I’m sure you’ll be an amazing mother.” It was about then he noticed Sebastian and waved to him. “Hey there Seb. Fancy seeing you out here.”

Penny seemed surprised to see him but smiled politely and waved at him. “Hello Sebastian. Enjoying a walk?”

“… Yes.”

Apollyon smiled a little and politely excused himself. “Well it’s time for me to go Penny. Sebastian’s helping me hook up my internet connection.”

“Ah, okay. Thank you for giving the children a talk. They really appreciated it.”

“No problem.” He gestured for Sebastian to follow him back to his farm. “… So what were you looking for me for?”

“… I wanted to talk to you about us going out.” Sebastian reached into his pocket and got a cigarette. “You haven’t told anyone about us have you?”

“Figured you’d want to do that.” He smiled a little at Sebastian and lightly touched his hand. “It’s a small town. If you think people knowing you’re gay is going to mess up your life here I’m more than happy to keep it secret. We could also just be gay as fuck and live on my farm… You at least gonna tell Sam and Abigail?”

“Well, yeah… At some point…” He was going to die when he told them they were going out. Knowing those two they would probably try and come up with situations to get them alone together. Maybe he could just text them. “So what did you get up to today?”

“I fished, gave a talk to a class of two, and inspired Elliott to start a poetry club by mistake.”

“… You did what?”

“I’ll tell you more about it when we get back to my place… If you want to stay over for lunch. I can make pumpkin soup or sashimi.”

“Both are good.”


	24. Not so spooky scarecrows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there peeps. Hope you all enjoy this chapter, leave a kudos and a comment :D

Sam practically squealed when Sebastian told him the news. Abigail was just as enthused, but managed to restrain her squeals. He had told them he and Apollyon were dating during their latest band practice session and he had instant regrets.

“So it’s official, official?” Asked Sam. “No take backs?”

“Have you kissed yet?” Asked Abby. “Or maybe… Screwed?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “We’ve only been going out for a few days. He still has a bunch of stuff to do so we haven’t hung out much. He said he doesn’t have much stuff to do in winter so we’ll probably hang out more then.”

“Want us to help you two get some alone time during Spirit’s Eve?” Asked Abby. She seemed a little excited about this. “You two could get lost in the maze and make out like high school lovers, or even sneak away to bump uglies… Stock up on condoms and lube.”

Sam nodded in agreement. “One can never use too much lube.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and started messing around on his synth. “Whatever… I haven’t told my mum about us yet… You two are the only ones that know. Okay?”

“You should tell her soon.” Said Sam as he tuned his guitar. “Your mum’s really cool so she should be alright with you not being straight. If not you can move in here if you like.”

Sebastian sighed and rolled his eyes. “Ah, shut up. I’m sure I’ll be fine. As long as I have an internet connection I’ll be just fine… That and with a few more commissions I’ll be able to rent a place in Zuzu city.”

Abby looked confused. “Um, so if you move to Zuzu what do you think Apollyon’s going to do? You think he’s going to drop everything to go back there? What would he do in Zuzu city anyway? Go back to working at Joja?”

That was something he hadn’t really thought about. He still wanted to go to Zuzu city. It was his dream to escape this town and go to the city. He didn’t want to stay here but he hadn’t considered what Apollyon would want in that situation. He probably wouldn’t want to leave Pelican town. However they were very early on in their relationship so things could always change. He didn’t need this added stress right now.

“I didn’t think about that…”

Sam sighed a little. “Of course you didn’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re kind of self-centered.”

“Rude.”

Sam shrugged. “Hey man, for better or worse you always seem to put yourself first unless push comes to shove.”

Abby nodded in agreement. “Yeah… That just leads to many questions about how you two got together in the first place anyway.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Who cares about the semantics? We’re together now and that’ all that really matters… You guys are stressing me out. I’mma light up in here at this rate.”

“Not in my room man.” Whined Sam. “My mum will get so pissed at me if my room smells like smoke. Also, ash. Ash everywhere.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and picked up an empty Joja cola can. “Happy now? Joja ash tray.”

A defeated sigh made its way past Sam’s lips. “Fine… Did you see on the notice board that Elliott is starting a poetry club? First meeting’s the day after Spirit’s Eve. Either of you want to come with me?”

His friends gave him weird looks. “Why?” Asked Abigail. “Since when have you been a poet?”

“I figured it would help writing song lyrics.” Sam tapped his lyric book for emphasis. “Song lyrics are just poems with music. So you two want to come with me? Penny already said she was interested in it so I’m going with her too, but yeah… thought you guys might be interested.”

Abigail shrugged. “Chores. Can’t do it… Since when did Elliott have a poem club?”

“Ask Apollyon next time you see him.” Said Sebastian as he searched for a cigarette. “He apparently gave him the idea.

After that the rest of their practice session was a mix of actually playing music and talking about Spirit’s Eve. Abby was excited for the maze. Sam also liked the maze, but he was looking forward to the food too. Sebastian wanted to see if Marlon was going to bring more skeleton’s down to spook everyone.

***

Apollyon didn’t check his mail the day of Spirit’s Eve. All he really wanted to do was beat the ever loving shit out of some monsters in hand to combat. Any day now Gadreel might come back and he wanted to be able to throw a punch hard enough to knock him out. His monster of choice to practice on was the metal head’s. Round little monsters that’s whole body was incased in what looked like a metal shell only exposing little glowing eyes and little yellow feet. They charged at his knees so they were good for kicking practice.

With one powerful kick he managed to launch the creature into a rock, killing it and cracking the rock in half. While the monster had nothing in it, the rock did. It seemed to have an omni geode, which surprisingly got smashed when the monster hit it. Now Apollyon didn’t have to bother about asking Clint to break it. He happily dusted it off the purple mineral inside the geode and was delighted to find that it was a huge chunk of obsidian.

He remembered that Maru once told him Sebastian loved this stuff and his birthday was coming up. If he could get it all shiny and clean he was sure it would look even better. He put it in his backpack and headed out of the mines.

Standing at the mines entrance he could see some unusual lights down in the town. Curious, Apollyon dusted off his hands and walked into town. From the decorations and such that were all around town it looked like it was Spirit’s Eve. In retrospect he felt like he should have noticed this since there were so many monsters running around the mines today, more than usual.

He made his way down to the tables all set up with food and sat by Emily and Shane. As soon as he was close enough Emily have him a big hug and Shane gave a nod of acknowledgement. “So good to see you Apollyon!” Said the blue haired woman. “I didn’t think you were going to turn up tonight.”

“Why?”

“I came by to go and get you but you weren’t there. By the way your wheat field is amazing.”

Apollyon laughed a little. “Yeah, I’m going to harvest it tomorrow. Should be a good haul. I’ll be able to brew some good beer during winter.”

Shane perked up a little at that. “Give me a little taste of that when it’s ready.”

“Of course.” Said Apollyon. “I plan to see what you and Pam think of my beer. If it’s any good I’ll see if Gus approves of it and start brewing some stuff for the saloon.” He hoped he’d be alive long enough to start doing that. Now he felt guilt starting to well up in the pit of his stomach.

Shane and Emily continued to talk about whatever it was they were talking about before he showed up, so Apollyon just let his eyes wander around the festival for a bit. There were lots of tables around with lots of food. More than likely provided by Gus. There was a huge cage set up by Marlon that had several skeletons walking around in it. Apollyon hated those things. Further up by the community center was a giant maze. That looked a little interesting.

He managed to spot Sebastian by the skeleton cage and his heart fluttered a little. He knew that Sebastian wasn’t going to want to do anything couply like holding hands or kissing, but he could still hang out with him right? Apollyon didn’t want things to be awkward between them. Hell, things were more awkward between them then the rare occasions he happened to see one of his one night stands on the street.

“Hey, you listening?” Asked Shane.

Apollyon looked at him. “What?”

“I said; I’ll be over at your place around midday to pick up your chickens.” Repeated Shane.

Emily looked confused. “Why are you taking his chickens?”

“I don’t have a heater.” Said Apollyon calmly. “This winter I plan on making lots of money and when I do I’ll be able to get a heater and get my chickens back. I didn’t want them to freeze over winter and I couldn’t just bring them into my house. Goblin would probably eat them.”

“You’re so considerate of your animals.” Emily smiled and put her hand on Apollyon’s. “Your aura is also especially bright today. Take advantage of it.”

Apollyon smiled a little and got up. “I will Emily. Don’t you worry. See you guys later.” He headed over to Sebastian, gently tapping him on the shoulder. “Hey.”

Sebastian jumped a little but quickly composed himself. “Hey… You’re covered in dirt.”

“I decided to roll in the dirt by the railroad track. Just normal kid’s stuff.”

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow and looked at the pickaxe Apollyon had on him. “… So you weren’t mining?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Maybe just a little mining. I’m hoping to find a prismatic shard to donate to the library. Once I’ve done that then I’ve donated almost ever mineral on my list.”

“That’s cool.”

Apollyon smiled a little and stood by Sebastian. Just close enough for their fingers to brush against each other. Sebastian put his hands in his pockets. “… So, these skeletons huh? How do you think they walk around without ligaments and stuff?”

“Magic?”

“Probably… Hey, sorry we haven’t had much time to hang out with each other. I’ve been trying to get everything ready for winter. I’ll probably have much more time to spend with you then.” 

“I’ve had work, so we’re both to blame for the time stuff…” He glanced over at the food tables. Apollyon followed his gaze, noticing that he was looking at his parents. “… How did you come out to your parents?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Getting my ass fucked by a guy in the living room seemed to get the point across.”

Sebastian choked on air. “Are you serious?!”

“Nah, my mum’s always been free spirited when it comes to sex or sexuality. She has some weird idea that souls kind of just float around for a while before getting sucked into a baby when they take their first breath.” Said Apollyon. “I think she thinks that souls kind of absorb their surroundings and ideas and stuff so when they get put in a baby it’s already preset as to what they will end up being or something weird like that.”

“Huh, no demon explanation this time?” Asked Sebastian in an almost teasing manner.

“Well, technically lesser demons are hermaphrodites with no real distinguishing features. Demon reproduction is weird and a lot more animalistic than human sex.” Informed Apollyon. “Though more powerful demons have more of a physical structure with distinct arms and legs…”

Sebastian sighed. “Well that’s not really helping me much…”

“… Sorry.” He looked around a little and nudged Sebastian softly. “Hey, you don’t have to think about that stuff tonight. Want to come with me back to my farm? I have this huge pumpkin at home that I don’t know what to do with. I can make you some pumpkin soup if you like.”

“… Alright.” The two of them left the festival and once they were well out of sight Sebastian reached out and held Apollyon’s hand. “… Sorry. I’m kind of a coward at heart…”

Apollyon gently squeezes his hand. “It’s okay. Look, I get it. Really I do. If things go badly for you things go really bad. I’m fine with keeping things secret. I just want you to be happy.”

“… I feel like a selfish fuck for doing that.”

If Sebastian was selfish then what on earth did that make Apollyon? “Look, just don’t think about that kind of stuff right now. We can hang out now, right?”

“Yeah.” When they got to the farm, Sebastian seemed surprised to see how much wheat was growing on Apollyon’s property. “… That’s a lot of wheat.”

Apollyon grinned, dumping his backpack by his front door. “Yeah. I’m going to make so much beer. Gus is gonna be stocked till at least the end of Spring.” He walked into the field. “Come, I want to show you the cool new scarecrow I got.”

Sebastian smiled a little and followed Apollyon into the wheat field. Apollyon made sure to warn him about any sprinkler he had around. The last thing he needed was for someone to trip over one and either break it or break their ankle. 

“And here’s my scarecrow. Cool isn’t it?”

“… Is that a giant raccoon?” Asked Sebastian in disbelief.

Apollyon poked out his tongue. “Don’t be mean. This raccoon is cute. I like it a lot. They have stopped birds from getting at my wheat.”

“Whatever.”

“No, it’s cute.”

“Whatever.”

“…” Apollyon pouted and pulled Sebastian close, making him squeak a little in surprise at the sudden closeness. “Admit that the raccoon is cute or I’ll make you pay.” He kind of hoped that Sebastian wouldn’t take that in a sexual way.

A dark blush quickly made its way across Sebastian’s face. “You gonna punish me now demon boy?” He purred. Damn it, he did take it sexually.

Apollyon was willing to roll with it. He smirked at Sebastian, placing his hands on his hips, rubbing his thumbs against the hem of his hoodie slowly making it creep higher and higher. “Tonight on Spirit’s Eve? I don’t think you’ll be able to handle me at my full power.”

“Well I’m not like most people.”

“I can tell. You better be ready for my punishment. I’m not going to hold back.”

Sebastian looked a little nervous but he nodded anyway. This conformation was good enough for Apollyon as he quickly pushed his hands under Sebastian’s hoodie and started to tickle his sides. This quickly sent Sebastian into fits of laugher as he squirmed and tried to get away from Apollyon.

“F-fuck you!” He called out between fits of laughter.

“Accept your punishment.” Cooed Apollyon as he continued to tickle him. “Call the raccoon cute or I will continue!”

Sebastian flailed and fell over, pulling Apollyon down with him. As he gaped for breath Apollyon sat next to him, holding his hand. “F-fine.” He wheezed. “It’s cute.”

“Good.” He looked up at the stars and sighed contently. Tonight was nice. Soon it would start to snow. He might try and make a snowman.

“… You’re an ass.”

“Hmm? Why?”

Sebastian poked his side. “I thought we were going to do something else…”

“… Seb, I’m covered in dirt and sweat and some other stuff. I’m all for getting down and dirty, but I feel pretty gross at the moment. You probably don’t want to screw around with a guy that reeks of B.O.”

The other man wrinkled his nose at that. “Yeah, okay. Fair enough.” He sat up and dusted himself off. “… I think I crushed a wheat plant…”

Apollyon moved so he was leaning over him to check the plant. “… Yep. It’s dead, but it’s okay. I still have plenty of wheat and you’re not hurt.” He moved back, stopping only to look into Sebastian’s eyes. “You’re not hurt are you?”

He was blushing again. “I’m good…”

“That’s good.” He quickly leaned forward and lightly kissed Sebastian’s lips. It might have just been a moment but Apollyon could still taste the nicotine. He could get addicted to his kisses if he wasn’t careful. That’s how smoking worked, right? Apollyon stood up and helped Sebastian to his feet. “How about some pumpkin soup?”

Sebastian smiled, not able to keep eye contact. Was he embarrassed by the kiss? “Yeah, sure. I love pumpkin soup.”

“Thank Yoba you do. I hate pumpkins I didn’t want it to go to waste.” The two of them walked back to the farm through the wheat field. For the time being, Apollyon was happy.


	25. Final plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter is not as ominous as I make it sound. Also, Apollyon is the biggest tease in the world. Kudos and comment if you like where this is going or have something to say. I really enjoy reading and responding to comments :D

Apollyon dumped the huge obsidian chunk on the Wizard’s table. “Can you make something out of this?”

“… What? Um, hello? Why are you here?” The Wizard was very confused. Then again who wouldn’t be if a random person marched into your home and dumped a rock on your table?

“Well it’s early in the morning and Sebastian’s still asleep so I thought I’d get his birthday present organized.” Though the two of them didn’t end up having sex last night they did have a rather long make out session, but that ended rather quickly because Sebastian tasted like pumpkin soup. He held out for as long as he could but he couldn’t do it. That particular thing made him want to puke. Surprisingly he was okay with eating pumpkin seeds. 

Either way he had left early to get the Wizard’s help. He figured that the man would have some kind of magic to carve stuff. He wanted to turn the obsidian lump into a figurine of some sort but he had no idea what.

“Can you help me carve this into something?”

The Wizard sighed a little and walked over, lightly touching the mineral. “I guess I could… Maybe a frog or a sleeping animal?”

“Frog is good.” Apollyon was excited about this. He really hoped Sebastian would like it.

“You said this was for Sebastian, correct?” Asked the Wizard. “The Junimos have told me that you two are in an intimate, romantic relationship?”

Apollyon sighed a little. “Well yeah, kind of… I mean we are, but Sebastian isn’t out as liking men yet so it’s all secret and stuff.” This seemed to bother the Wizard. “What? You homophobic?”

“What? No. My unease has nothing to do with that… It’s just with your current condition I’m more worried you’ll end up eating him rather than bedding him.”

That offended Apollyon quite a bit. “I don’t eat people. Beat the crap out of? Yes. Murder? Possibly. But I don’t cannibalize people.”

“Considering you aren’t human it wouldn’t be cannibalism.” Reminded the Wizard. “Either way my point still stands about you and your condition. You might feel fine right now but give it a few days and you could spiral into a rage and kill him… If I do recall correctly your mother once told me a story of such an event, just to get my opinion on the matter.”

Apollyon frowned a little and adjusted his backpack. This was going to be interesting. “Go on…”

“When you were little you were apparently kidnapped by some cult. Some doomsday cult I believe is what the papers said…” He shrugged it off. “Anyway I’ve never cared that much for cults and their manipulation tactics. So they kidnapped you, drugged you and were going to kill you for some undisclosed reason. But when they slit your tiny throat they got more than they bargained for and they unintentionally released your demon side.”

Apollyon swallowed thickly at that. “Okay, so it was a repressed memory after all… Fun…”

“Yes, your mother had to stop Colt from shooting you in the face with a blessed bullet. I can’t say I could blame him. You were allegedly playing around in the guts of someone you decided kill… I don’t know what you looked like, but your mother said that you didn’t look human. Just a thing that knew what parts made up a human but no idea how those parts went together… I suggested a few things that could help reduce the possibility of you going murder happy again.”

“Like not get murdered by crazy cult people?”

“Well that, and I also suggested ways to lower your testosterone levels for when puberty hits, since people tend to do stupid things like start fights when they have high testosterone.”

“… So you’re the reason mum went crazy with shit like kale, celery, and soy yogurt?”

The Wizard shrugged. “I simply suggested that you consume food rich in estrogen to see if that would help you. Your body is basically human and does most of the same functions so I was just guessing that might help.” He picked up the obsidian and looked it over. “… I’ll have this done in about three days or so. You can come by and pick it up then.”

“… Um, would you mind just sending it to Sebastian on his birthday?” Apollyon didn’t want to admit it, but he was really starting to worry about Gadreel just showing up and sticking a knife in his neck. “I um… You see, I might not be alive by then…”

That declaration seemed to surprise the Wizard a lot. “Can I ask why?”

“… I got threatened by a guy I used to know. Some asshole called Gadreel. He’s a magic user that’s all about banishing all things Void related. If they had their way I would have died a long time ago…” He put on a forced smile. “But hey that’s neither here nor there.”

Now the Wizard seemed worried. “I see… So you’re giving up? You’re going to face this head on?”

“Never said I was giving up.” Said Apollyon. “I have every intention to keep on living. I just want to make sure things won’t go completely to shit if something fucks up… Oh speaking of which I have one more thing for you…” He took a bag of gold out of his bag and placed it on the table. “Here, 30,000 gold… I heard a rumor that there are three dark shrines hidden somewhere in the valley and if you make them an offering they can do some magical things. I read that the dark shrine of memory will erase someone’s memory of you so if I really fuck up… Can you make the offering and ask the shrine to make everyone forget about me?”

Apollyon had been thinking about this for a while. He didn’t want to upset anyone if he suddenly passed away or disappeared without a trace. Pelican town was a nice place and he hoped it could stay that way. Hopefully the Junimos could find someone else to help with their bundles, he had done his best so far by himself.

The Wizard took the money bag in his hand with a somber expression on his face. “… You have my word. If things turn out as badly as that I will make it so the valley’s human residents don’t mourn you departure… Will you be spending most of your time with Sebastian?”

“Yep. Winter is coming up and I want to spend as much time I can with him. I just have a few things I have to do first.” When Apollyon got to the door he paused. “Oh, I have a cat at home. Goblin. Do you think you could look after her for me if something happens?”

“You have my word.”

“Thanks…” Apollyon left the tower and headed down to the sewers to see how Krobus was doing. He had visited the strange Shadow Brute a few times to buy goods from him and to talk philosophy some more. He still didn’t believe that Yoba was once a thing from the Void.

But Krobus was very strong in his beliefs and was happy to share their opinions with anyone with an open mind. Apollyon bought another void egg from them and the two ended up sitting down and talking. Today’s topic of discussion was the afterlife. A topic he was thinking more and more about lately.

“- then we return to Yoba to either be taken to his garden in the afterlife or we are given the chance to be born again to right any wrongs we have done in our lives. Either that or we get sent to the Void to be punished. Does that make sense to you?”

Apollyon blinked a little, kind of confused by Kroubs’s explanation but was willing to roll with it. “So you think everyone will get reincarnated?”

“Only the ones that need to and deserve to come back.” Said Krobus. “If you’re too evil you go to the Void and if you are very good you can be with Yoba… What do human’s believe?”

“You either go to the Yoba plane or the Void. There’s no in between.”

Krobus nodded as he stared out into the glowing green sewerage. “Seems pretty bleak if you ask me… Regardless, I hope we can meet again in the next life when our time comes. Be that as new living beings on this earth or on the Yoba plane.”

Apollyon smiled a little at that. “Yeah… You know, I don’t think that if I die I’ll get to go to the Yoba plane. I’m pretty sure I’m going back to the Void…” He shivered a little at that thought. “I don’t want to go back there. This place, this world… I don’t want to leave it. There are so many places with people and things that I love and I…” His mind started to fill with thoughts of Sebastian and his heart started to ache. “I don’t want to leave him. I just started living my life with him.”

“You have someone to live for? Good. Live for them, but remember it’s your life so there is nothing wrong with living for yourself first.”

“I know. I am.” Apollyon looked up at the ceiling. He wondered if Sebastian was awake right now or if he had raided his fridge yet? Once he was done here he had to find something nice for dinner and invite Sebastian over.

***

Sebastian had woken up late in the morning and headed back home. He realized that he and Apollyon couldn’t really go too much further in their relationship unless they were open and people knew. Sure they could do stuff in private, but it wasn’t like they could hold hands in public or kiss out in the open. Heck he shied away from holding Apollyon’s hand the night before because they were out in the open. He needed to fix this.

He walked into his home not surprised to see his mum behind the counter going over some new blueprints. “Oh Sebby, what are you doing out so early? Did you stay at Sam’s last night?”

“… No. I was with Apollyon.” He nervously started to fiddle with his hair. “Hey um… I actually have something kind of serious I want to talk to you about…”

“Oh?” Robin immediately folded up her blueprints and gave Sebastian her full attention. She looked a little worried but Sebastian couldn’t blame her. He never really had serious talks with her about anything. “What’s wrong Sebby?”

“… Um, nothing is wrong exactly but um… What do you think of Apollyon?”

“He’s a nice young man. Cheerful, polite, lets me ramble on about carpentry. Why?”

Sebastian felt a little sick, but he had come too far to go back now. “Well, I’m gay and I’m dating Apollyon.”

Robin looked shocked and it made Sebastian’s anxiety rise. Suddenly she broke into a smile, looking absolutely thrilled. “That’s wonderful news! How long have you two been going out? Did you just start dating last night? He’s such a nice young man. I know he’ll treat you right.” She walked out from behind the counter and gave Sebastian a huge hug. “Let’s invite Apollyon over for dinner, oh, as long as you don’t think that’s moving too fast. He’s such a nice young man.”

Okay, this went over a lot better than he expected. “So um… You don’t care that I’m gay?”

Robin smiled warmly and lovingly cupped his face in her hands. “Sebby, I love you no matter who you fall in love with. I’m just so happy you found someone who loves you for you. You’re a wonderful young man and everyone in this family loves you.”

Sebastian was blushing now. “Thanks mum… This turned out better than I expected.”

She chuckled a little and lightly squeezed his cheeks. “Sebby, I’ve never really cared much about who people love as long as they are two consenting adults, and Demetrius studies biology. Biology. If you ask him how many genders or sexes there are in any given species he will talk your ear off about it… I’m sorry you felt you had to keep this part of you a secret from us…”

“No it’s fine mum I just… You hear stories about how badly things go for some people and… It’s just easier to keep quiet about it, you know? Just in case.”

Robin smiled and kissed his forehead. “I understand. You know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Yeah.”

“… So you stayed the night with Apollyon? Like you slept over or was there very little sleeping involved?”

“… I am going to my room and pretending that this conversation never happened.” He quickly backed away from her and headed down to his room.

She laughed a little and called after him. “I was just teasing you Sebby! Invite Apollyon over for dinner! It’ll be fun!”

Sebastian blushed and slammed the door behind himself. He was happy that he had come out to Robin and she still loved him, but having a family dinner with Apollyon? He felt as though things weren’t going to end well. They would ask all kinds of questions. More than likely embarrassing ones for the both of them. At least he knew Robin liked Apollyon. He wasn’t too sure about Demetrius though.

As he went over every situation in his head the door to his room was suddenly flung open and Sam walked in. “Hey Sebastian! You coming with me or what?”

“What?”

“Elliot’s poetry club thing. We could at least see what it’s about. Think of the lyrics we could write. We’re good at music but not too much with the writing words. You don’t have to join in, you can just grab a book and pretend to read it if you just want to check it out.”

“… Wasn’t Penny going with you?”

“Well yeah, but she isn’t in the band. Come on. Please?”

“… Eh, fine. I need to get out of the house anyway.” He quickly walked past Sam and headed out.

Sam seemed surprised by his enthusiasm but he wasn’t complaining. “So why do you need to rush out all of a sudden?”

“… I came out to my mum and now she wants Apollyon over for a family dinner.”

Sam grinned and slapped him on the back. “Alright. So you’re now out? As in out, out? No more hiding who you are away? … Can I start getting you random rainbow stuff now?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “You know I’m going to punch you if you start telling everyone I’m gay, right?”

“Hey, I’m just excited for you and not sure how you want me to show my support.”

“Just be you and don’t make a big deal about it.” Sebastian fished a cigarette out of his pocket and quickly lit it up. He’d be finished by the time they got to library. 

The last day of fall. Overnight the whole Valley would get covered in a blanket of snow. He liked winter since it was so cold people tended to stay inside. It was good. He could head out a lot more, but he’d probably end up visiting Apollyon a lot. That would be nice. He could just imagine sitting with Apollyon on his couch watching the rest of his DVD collection over and over again. It made him feel happy and inwardly cringe at himself for being so sappy.

As they walked past Penny’s trailer the young occupant happened to walk out with some books clutched to her chest. Sam grinned at her. “Hey Penny.”

The meek girl jumped a little and smiled shyly at them. “H-hello Sam, Sebastian. You startled me.”

“Ah, sorry about that. Heading down to the library now?” 

“Yep. Elliott was so excited when I asked him about it. I think having a poetry club in town would be really nice.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and smiled a little at Sebastian. “Are you going to join in Sebastian?”

He shrugged. “I’m just going because Sam asked me to. I’ll probably just find something to read while you do your thing.”

With that the three of them headed to the library. Much to Sebastian’s surprise there were a few more people that seemed to be interested in poetry than he expected. Though then again his expectations were extremely low to begin with. It seemed as though Leah, Caroline, Emily, Clint and Gil were here for this. Now as far as he knew Leah was really good friends with Elliott so of course she was there. Caroline, well she had to have some kind of hobby. Of course Emily was here. She loved all kind of art stuff and the more expressive the better. Clint was obviously here because of Emily. Then there was Gil… The man never left the Adventure’s Guild by the mines. He just sat in his rocking chair and looked dead.

Elliott beamed when he saw the three of them walk in. “Welcome. We’re just about to get started. I assume you three are joining us for our first meeting?”

Sam beamed back just as brightly. “Me and Penny are. Seb’s looking for a book.”

Elliott nodded in understanding. “Fair enough. This is a library after all. But feel free to join us if you wish to do so.” He checked his watch and hummed a little. “Well, let us get started. I want to have a feedback session once we are done so we can make improvements in the near future.”

Sebastian quickly took this as his cue to leave. He quickly ducked into the sci-fi section and lazily looked over the titles. Every once in a while he would tune back into the poetry conversation. Elliott was briefly going over different styles and types of poetry and the reason as to why people write poetry in general.

There would be brief discussions about what different types of poems. The major one came from Sam talking about ballads. Sebastian didn’t really know what the point was Sam was trying to make but it somehow ended with everyone deciding that Bohemian Rhapsody is an amazing power ballad.

Sebastian tuned out for a little while after that when he found possibly the oldest book in the sci-fi section; The Adventures of Mars man Buckaroo. It looked like something straight out of the eighties. It was amazing. It was cringy. It was full of racial slurs and sexist stereotypes. It used tropes so new than that they had become tired and cliché now. Needless to say he was going to read as much of it as possible then borrow it before he left.

He had read a fair bit into the book, just getting to the end of chapter three when he heard the library door swing open and someone quickly run in to talk to Gunther. He couldn’t hear what those people were talking about over the sound of Elliott suggesting everyone share a bit of poetry so they could give feedback and improve on their craft.

Sebastian peeked out from behind the bookshelf just in time to see what looked like Apollyon run past Elliott and into the museum section of the library. He wondered what he was doing, but didn’t want to seem like he was sneaking up on him or something. Then again he needed to talk to him about coming over for dinner. He’d feel awkward if his mum ended up asking him over the next time he came over to his house.

As he walked by it sounded like the poetry group had dived straight into the sharing poetry part of the evening as Elliott dived right into a poem about the sea or something with lots and lots of purple prose and flowery words. It made Sebastian roll his eyes so hard he swore he could see the back of his eye sockets. 

He slipped into the museum and was surprised to see that it was actually pretty full of minerals and artifacts. The last time he was in here it was empty. Off in a random corner he could see Apollyon carefully placing a spiky pink rock down. “… Perfect.”

“What’s that?”

Apollyon glanced over at Sebastian and smiled. “Hey Seb. I did a bit of mining and I found this. It’s a star shard. These are my favourite crystals. I wanted to keep it but well, I think the collection’s a little more important.”

Sebastian nodded a little. “… So um… I came out to my mum. Told her we were dating.”

“Oh, how did that go? Did she take it well?” Apollyon’s question was full of subtle anxiety.

He smiled a little at his boyfriend. “Almost too well. Mum wants you over for dinner soon.”

Apollyon grinned at that. “Really? Awesome.” He hugged Sebastian tightly. “I’m so happy for you. Honestly I had no idea you were going to do this… Does this mean we can hold hands in public now?”

“… We’ll see.”

Apollyon chuckled. “Ah, well there was no harm in trying. Think the poetry club is over yet?”

“Maybe? I think they are wrapping up right now.”

“… Shame. I was interested to see what Elliott was going to do.”

“It wasn’t anything too special. Besides you’d have to share a poem or something if you went there. Can’t imagine you could make much poetry about growing pumpkins.”

Apollyon pouted. “You doubt I have angsty teen poetry about the stupid adults?”

“… Okay, fair enough, but-”

“Wait, why aren’t you sharing your angsty teen poetry?”

“… Hush you.”

“Tell me about your terrible poetry.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“I said no.”

“Come on. Please? I’m your boyfr-” Apollyon was quickly cut off when Sebastian crashed their lips together. 

For a moment both of them were frozen in place. But then without much warning Apollyon lifted Sebastian and placed him on an empty display table all while their lips were still locked. Sebastian blushed as he pulled away, noting the sudden predatory and lustful gaze in Apollyon’s eyes. It sent a shiver down his spine and left a strange warm swirling feeling in his guts.

Apollyon leaned in again, stopping just before their lips touched. “So I’ll be at your place at seven?”

“… What?”

“Dinner tomorrow. I’ll be there at seven.” Apollyon moved back and straightened out his shirt. “Right now though, I gotta get home.”

Sebastian was dumbfounded. “… You’re a tease, you know that right?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Maybe next time. We haven’t even been dating for a whole season yet. Play your cards right and it’ll be much sooner than that.”

“… How do I play my cards right?”

“Well, your birthday’s coming up. Be nice to me till then and I’ll spend the whole day making you feel good.” He quickly kissed Sebastian on the cheek. “And if you play your cards really well we can extend it to all night too.” 

Sebastian’s brain short circuited at that promise and gave Apollyon enough time to slip away. He only realized that Apollyon was gone when Sam came by to get him. He was all excited about some of the ideas for new lyrics he had come up with already and some ideas that Emily had given him. Sebastian just nodded along. He was still trying to process what the hell just happened with Apollyon.


	26. Family dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just couldn't stop writing! I got to the end of this chapter and realised I was on my way to writing another chapter, so I ended up splitting it into two so I could both write more and not have some like 20,000 word chapter, lol. Anyway, kudos and comment my lovelies if you are enjoying this. I'll be posting the next chapter really soon :D

Seven. It was seven. Seven in the evening. Seven in the evening and Apollyon hadn’t shown up yet. Maybe he forgot? Maybe he was getting attacked by something in the mines? Maybe he was fishing? Maybe he realized that this was a stupid idea and decided he would ditch coming over to Sebastian’s place after all? That sounded like something he would do, right?

There were the things that were flooding Sebastian’s mind as he impatiently paced around the carpentry shop. He had been there for maybe ten minutes now just walking around thinking of all the ways tonight could go wrong or how Apollyon would cancel at the last second.

Robin looked in on him and sighed a little. “You’re going to wear out the floor if you keep that up Sebby.”

“Sorry…” He was itching for a cigarette but he didn’t want to smell like smoke if Apollyon did eventually make it.

Robin walked over and gently squeezed his shoulder. “It’s okay Sebby. It hasn’t even been five minutes yet. He’ll be here soon. Just relax a little.”

Just as she said that there was a knock at the door. It made Sebastian’s heart flutter a little. He walked over to the door but paused before he opened it. He glanced over at Robin. She just giggled and quickly walked out of the room, but he could only assume she was in the hallway.

He took a deep breath and opened the door. Immediately Sebastian was met with a bouquet of flowers. Specifically red, white, orange, and dark purple roses. “… Um Apollyon?”

Apollyon slowly lowered the flowers, his face was covered in dirt and had some scratches here and there. “… I um… You’re not allergic to flowers are you? I know I should have asked but I got a letter in the mail from Pierre about bouquets and how it’s like a tradition to give them to people you want to get romantic with and stuff, I think Abby might have mentioned I’m interested in someone or something, and you’re out to your family now and I um… I thought I might try and make it a little more official?”

That was kind of sweet of him. Sebastian took the flowers. “Thanks. Um, do you want to use the bathroom? You’re kind of covered in dirt.”

“Oh um, right…” Apollyon nervously wiped his hands on his shirt. “I went and did some mining but when I saw what the time was I had to rush to the shops to get the flowers and I didn’t have time to clean up… Can I come in? It’s kind of freezing out here…”

“Ah, right.” Sebastian quickly stepped aside and let Apollyon in. “Bathroom is down the hall, room with the toilet in it. I’m gonna find a vase for this.” Apollyon nodded and quickly headed off to the bathroom.

Sebastian took a moment to look at the flowers for a moment and admired them. They were beautiful and it made him blush a little to think that Apollyon went to the trouble of getting them for him. He checked under his mum’s counter and found a vase. Usually in the Spring she would have a vase out with some flowers. He filled it up with some water from the sink in Demetrius’s laboratory. For the moment he’d put the flowers out on his mum’s front desk. He’d take them to his room after dinner. 

***

Apollyon felt so embarrassed. He had tried to get out of the caves early, but he had failed so horribly at that when he decided to beat the crap out of a bunch of Shadow Brutes to see if they would drop a diamond or something so he could give it as a present for the family. He didn’t find that, but he did find a prismatic shard. He’d been conflicted about giving it to the museum or Sebastian’s family, but the family had one out.

He washed his hands with some lavender scented hand soap and checked to see if he had anything stuck in his teeth. On one hand he didn’t have anything in his teeth, but on the other hand he could see the start of more serrated shark-like teeth starting at the back of his gums near his molars. That was not good.

Sighing he quickly finished cleaning and making himself look presentable. Sure he was still a little dirty, but they would understand, right? He was a farmer after all. They might expect him to be a little grubby, but this was a preschedule event. He should look cleaner than this. Yoba have mercy he needed to stop worrying about this so much. He was just a normal, regular, human male that was dating another normal human male. He could do this.

***

Sebastian smiled a little when Apollyon finally got out of the bathroom. He cleaned up pretty well. “Ready for this dumpster fire?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” He reached out his hand, gesturing that he wanted to hold hands. Apollyon looked nervous, but it was hard to tell if it was because of dinner or because of possible rejection.

“… You’ll be fine.” He held Apollyon’s hand and walked to the kitchen. Robin was just setting the casserole on the table while Demetrius was rummaging through the fridge looking for drinks. Maru wasn’t here yet, but was probably on her way any second.

Suddenly Robin looked up and saw them. She beamed at them and quickly went over hugging Apollyon. “So good to see you. Are you okay? Your face is a little scratched up?”

“I got attacked by a falling rock in the mines today.”

“You could as Maru to look over any injury you have.” Said Demetrius as he found a bottle of wine. “She’s very close to finishing her medical degree.”

Apollyon laughed nervously. “Yeah, I know. I’ve gotten beaten up in the mines and just doing day to day stuff enough to know how good she and doctor Harvey are.”

Robin clapped her hands together. “Okay boys, sit down and make yourselves comfy. I’m going to go and get Maru. She probably got caught up with something.” She quickly left the room while everyone else sat down at the table.

Things became oddly quiet once she was gone. Apollyon just sat nervously at the table, unsure what to do with his hands and Sebastian just had this horrible feeling that Demetrius was going to say something and make everything even more awkward.

“So,” said Demetrius. “How long has this been a thing?”

And there it was. He was going to ask all kinds of fucked up questions that would make him inwardly cringe. Why was he always like this? He was so tactless. Apollyon was going to end up feeling awkward and make some excuse to leave.

Surprisingly Apollyon just laughed a little. “Well I can’t speak for Sebastian but I’ve never really fallen into a typical human binary category when it came to who I fell in love with. I discovered this at a young age when I was watching some random cartoon and realised I thought that the main male hero was cute.” Both Demetrius and Sebastian were confused by his statement. Apollyon just smiled at them. “But maybe you were referring to when we started dating. I would have thought someone like yourself would know how to word things so that there is little to no misunderstandings.”

Demetrius looked confused and slightly embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to offend.”

Apollyon shrugged. “I’d just rather very straight forward and direct questions rather than people skirting around the real questions… Plus I’m kind of used to parents claiming I corrupted their kids and turned them into the dreaded gays.”

Demetrius nodded a little. “Ah, I see. Please excuse me then. Robin’s been saying I should speak more casually when I’m not in the lab. Allow me to start again. So how long have you and Sebastian been dating?”

After that Apollyon dropped his passive aggressive attitude and happily told Demetrius that they started seeing each other a few days ago, and retold the story when Robin and Maru came back in. From there on the night seemed to go pretty well in Sebastian’s opinion.

Most of the questions were directed at Apollyon, which Sebastian was very relieved about. He didn’t want to answer any of his family’s weird questions about them and their relationship. It was all the usual stuff of how they got together and dates and stuff. To Apollyon’s credit he took it all in his stride. 

“Ah, unfortunately we haven’t been able to do too much but now since it’s winter we can hopefully spend some time together.” Said Apollyon as he helped himself to some wine. “So nobody get upset if I happen to steal Sebastian away for a day or two.”

Robin chuckled a little. “By all means steal away. I just… I’m so happy for you two. I really didn’t think this kind of thing would happen for Sebastian.”

Sebastian tried not to let out an annoyed groan. “Really mum?”

“Well you spend all day in your room dear.” Reminded Robin. “You don’t go out much and meet new people so I couldn’t help but worry about your wellbeing and well, your prospects of finding love.”

He wanted to crawl into a hole at that point. Of course his mum would bring up how anti-social he was. Of course Apollyon already knew that, but it was still embarrassing. At least it wasn’t as bad as his mum breaking out the baby photos. That would just end him.

Apollyon chuckled a little at that. “Ah, well my parents used to say the same things about me, but that was kind of more due to my hyper aggressive anti-social behaviour… and my extremely poor taste in partners.”

“How bad was it?” Asked Maru.

“Um… for simplicities sake let’s just say pretty much all the people I’ve dated are probably in jail for one reason or another. So unless Sebastian has gone and spent time in jail that I don’t know about this is the best relationship I’ve been in.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and lightly tapped Apollyon’s foot with his own. “And I think you have had enough wine for now.”

Soon dinner wrapped up and Sebastian quickly retreated to his room with Apollyon following quickly behind him. Once they were in the safety of his room Sebastian promptly fell down face first onto his bed. He was drained. He felt the mattress dip when Apollyon sat next to him. The farmer hummed softly and ran his fingers through Sebastian’s hair.

“That went well. I think your family likes me.”

Sebastian grunted a little. “Yeah.”

“… What’s wrong?” Apollyon lied down next to him. “Did I do something wrong?”

Sebastian turned his head to face him and smiled slightly. “It’s fine. I’m just… I find eating dinner with my family kind of draining. But did you have a good time? You looked like you were going to really rip into Demetrius at the beginning there.”

Apollyon chuckled. “Yeah, I’m just tired of people implying that I’m always the bad guy. I know I can do some messed up shit but I don’t think I have the power to make someone gay… And I wasn’t joking about parents that have accused me of making their already gay sons gay. All I really did was give them acceptance and showed that I wanted to be with them… But alas this kind of stuff never lasts for me.”

“This kind of stuff?”

“Romance usually… But I have a feeling that maybe this time things might be different?”

Sebastian smiled a little, Apollyon was talking with such sincerity and affection it was hard not to feel his heart melting slightly from this. “Hey, I won’t say this is gonna be a sure thing forever, we only just started dating, but I’m willing to work through anything and everything that comes our way.”

“Good to know I’m not the only one with that mindset.” Apollyon leaned forward and kissed him. 

It was good to feel his lips against his own, but he wanted a little more. He moved a little closer to Apollyon and lightly wrapped an arm around him, getting him just that little bit closer. Apollyon reciprocated the action, but he was just that little bit bolder, choosing to place his hand on Sebastian’s hip. His thumb brushed just under Sebastian’s hoodie touching his skin. He shivered a little at this small touch and moved as close as he physically could to his boyfriend.

Suddenly Apollyon rolled on top of him, pinning Sebastian to the mattress. Sebastian was in a daze as he stared up at his lover. Apollyon had that same predatory look in his eyes he had the other day in the library that partially scrambled his brain. He could only imagine he had the same stunned look on his face now as he did then.

They started kissing again, but this time with more passion. They let each other’s hands explore their bodies. Apollyon’s body had toned out nicely over the past year. He might have looked like a twig and still did now, but no one would be able to deny he was starting to develop abs. More often than Sebastian would have liked his fingers brushed past thin, flat scars. Sure he had told Apollyon that they were beautiful at the time, and he meant it, but they still worried him.

Sebastian moved his hips ever so slightly, gasping a little when he felt himself accidentally grinding himself against Apollyon’s leg. Apollyon himself let out a small groan and pressed a little harder against him. Sebastian let out a small whimper as his hips involuntarily bucked up against his lover. Each second that passed just made wearing his stupid skinny jeans more and more uncomfortable.

Then, very unexpectedly Apollyon pulled back, frowning a little. “Um… I don’t mean to be an asshole here but um… I er…”

“… What is it?” Did he do something wrong? Should he have not bucked his hips or something? Sebastian couldn’t think of a reason why Apollyon would suddenly pull away like that.

“I um… This is going to sound dumb… But I um… I’m kind of nervous.”

“We don’t have to go all the way tonight. So you don’t need to worry. I’m kind of nervous too…” He sat up, smiling slightly. He was relieved to see that Apollyon was also hard. “… If you want to we could do something else… You trust me right?”

“Of course I do.”

Sebastian nodded a little and quickly retrieved a bottle of lube from under the bed. “Sit back and take it out.”

Apollyon blushed a little and did as he was told. It was kind of cute how Apollyon went from being so dominant to being submissive in the blink of an eye, but those thoughts were gone when he saw the cock Apollyon was sporting. He wasn’t ridiculously long but damn he was thick. How the hell had he not seen at least the outline through his pants? He had seen Apollyon drenched at least twice and hadn’t seen the fat monster he was packing down there. Maybe Apollyon was a grower not a shower?

Either way, Sebastian quickly moved over to him and unzipped his own pants. He groaned a little when the cool air of his bedroom hit his cock. He wasn’t as thick as Apollyon, but he was roughly hand an inch longer. Either way Apollyon looked suitably impressed with him.

Apollyon blushed a little. “Damn. You’re pretty big…”

“Speak for yourself.” He moved so he was sitting on Apollyon’s lap and pressed their cocks together. “You’re fucking thick.” He poured some lube onto their cock’s, shuddering a little at how cold it was before he took them both in one hand and started to stroke.

“Fuck.” Moaned Apollyon. “Didn’t think you’d to something so lewd like this.” There was that predatory glint in his eyes again. 

Sebastian rolled his eyes a little and just responded by stroking faster. Fuck, it felt good doing this. Better than any wet dream. It was amazing feeling Apollyon’s cock pulsing in his hand, and even more amazing when Apollyon started to jerk his hips in time with his strokes. 

Apollyon moaned, quickly covering his mouth with his hand. From his heavy breathing and quivering legs it was obvious he wasn’t going to last long. Truthfully, neither was Sebastian. It felt good, too damn good. Sebastian gasped and came after a particularly rough stroke. Apollyon squeezed his eyes shut and but his bottom lip as he came hard.

As the two came down from their high, Sebastian grabbed some tissues to clean themselves up. Once cleaned they lied next to each other again. It felt good to just lie with him while basking in their own afterglow’s. 

Suddenly Apollyon sat up. “Shit! I completely forgot!”

Startled, Sebastian sat up with him. “What? What’s the matter?”

“I’m meeting up with the Wizard at like seven tomorrow morning.” He groaned in frustration. “I have um… a little problem that he’s said he’d help me with… He is surprisingly good with dealing with pests and stuff. I kind of have a vermin problem…”

“Ah, okay… Does that mean you need to go now?”

“Yeah… Sorry…”

“… I guess it can’t be helped.” Sebastian would be lying if he was to say he wasn’t disappointed. He was kind of hoping that he’d stay and maybe they’d both be comfortable enough to go further tonight. “Can I come over tomorrow?”

“Of course.” Apollyon stood up and quickly kissed Sebastian. “I love you. See you soon.” He quickly left the basement and left Sebastian disappointed. This night wasn’t ending exactly as he hoped, but it was close enough.

***

Apollyon felt giddy. To think that they would be doing something like that tonight it was just… wow. He wanted to do more, so much more, but he had his own reservations about it. He was still under the influence of whatever spell Morgana had put on him, at least he assumed so. He really was seeing the Wizard tomorrow to see if whatever she had put on him had passed. He didn’t want to accidentally hurt him due to anything. 

He could just imagine the damage his teeth could have done if he tried to give Sebastian a blow job. He would seriously have to consider filing his teeth down if that were the case. Perhaps he could get some kind of horse tooth filing thing from Marine? Then again it would be kind of hard to explain to her that he needed to file down his demon teeth so that he could give Sebastian blow jobs without slashing his dick to shreds.

He sighed some more and kicked the snow. Hopefully things would be fixed soon. They were going to be spending more time together now that it was winter. He could just imagine all the cliché porno situations that could arise from snuggling up to each other in front of a fire place.

Thinking those thoughts he made it back to his home. He quickly patted himself down and quickly realised something rather unfortunate. He was missing his keys. They must have fallen out at some point. Possibly when he was making out with Sebastian. He now had two choices; either go back to Sebastian’s and ask for his keys back, or sleep in the chicken coop and worry about it tomorrow.

Apollyon started to make his way to the chicken coop, when he noticed something kind of strange about the night sky. It wasn’t its usual black to dark blue tint. It kind of had a strange purple hue to it. Was this some kind of natural phenomenon that happened in the Valley? He had no idea. It was kind of pretty.

“Hello Apollyon.” Cooed the all too familiar voice of Gadreel.

Apollyon whipped his head around so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash. There was Gadreel with two other members of whatever bullshit Yoba cult he was from. One was a woman carrying a large tome and the other was some grizzled looking older man with salt and pepper hair.

This was not good. Apollyon couldn’t help but growl at them. “So, tonight’s the night I get to fucking kill you? Good.”

Gadreel chuckled a little. “Nice to see you’re still delusional.” He gestured to the woman who quickly opened her tome and waved her arm. Her spell caused hundreds of ice crystals to form and hover in the air above Apollyon. “Make it rain.” The ice crystals rained down upon Apollyon like a machine gun fire.


	27. Ultimatum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ended up splitting this chapter too because it was a little longer than I thought it would be but hey whatever. This stuff happens sometimes. Kudos and comment to show your appreciation, I try to respond to all comments. *finger guns* Enjoy

Despite his actions leading up to this day, Apollyon wasn’t resined to his fate. He just needed to take care of things just in case the worst were to happen. He wasn’t going to have anyone suffer because of his absence. He had animals that needed care when he was gone. They would suffer the most if he suddenly vanished.

He often thought about some of the things his mother told him when he was younger. The one that had most often come to mind over the past few weeks; that living for the sake of living was reason enough to keep living. He believed that. He wanted to live for himself. He didn’t ask to be brought into this existence because he wanted to, but he had a life and he didn’t want to lose it. Did that make him evil?

This is what it truly meant to be forsaken. Cast away and deemed as nothing but an evil monster in the eyes of all that knew him. He had done everything he could to hold himself back his whole life. He had slipped up a few times growing up and brought this attention on himself, but he had hoped that if he lived as a human then maybe he could be human. It was a childish dream, but it was his dream.

He wanted to live his life among humans as a human. He wanted to live and love and die as a human, but he doubted he would be allowed to have that now. Fighting like a human against magic users would get him killed, and if he died here in this way all the things he dreamed of for his future would be gone. He wanted to keep farming with his cat and other farm animals. He wanted to keep interacting with the town’s people. He wanted to fall deeper in love with Sebastian. Hell, he even wanted to help the Junimos.

Unfortunately Apollyon quickly realised that he wasn’t going to reach his dreams if he continued to act the way he did. He would have to let go of his human limitations and just let his demon side be in control. That kind of thing wouldn’t be too difficult. Without being able to feel pain his body had no way of telling him that he had reached his limits. He didn’t know if he could really win this but he would try. That’s all he could do.

As the ice shards pelted the earth the snow seemed to explode from the ground creating something like a smoke screen. It gave Apollyon a brief chance to run away and hide in a small cluster of trees he hadn’t cleared yet. 

He had to think. There were three of them, Gadreel was easy enough to beat down if he could get close enough. The woman with the tome he could probably over power if he destroyed her book. The other man, he had no idea. He looked strong. Maybe he could throw a rock at him or something.

Almost as if some the older man had heard him, he was there, right by Apollyon, wielding some ridiculously huge sword with a blade made of light. He took a swipe at Apollyon who just managed to dive out of the way and back into the open. He was instantly bombarded with another barrage of ice crystals.

This time Apollyon wasn’t able to doge them and got struck. Most of them were superficial scratches, but one managed to strike him in the left eye. Apollyon’s eye offered little resistance as the large, sharp object plunged deep within his socket. It was like popping open a water balloon. The strike was so powerful it knocked him flat onto his back. He could hear the sharp point of the crystal grinding through his skull as the muscles around his socket involuntarily twitched. Surely if his body could still feel pain he would have been screaming in torturous agony.

Looking up at the night sky he could see the stars but through the strange purple hue of the sky everything appeared slightly cracked with the stars acting as the starting points. Everything was falling apart. The cracks were getting larger. Coupling the visual hallucination along with the inescapable grinding sound reverberating through his skull it felt as though this moment in time was falling apart at the seams.

As he laid stunned on the ground he could hear Gadreel and the others talking calmly about the bloody execution. “Do you think he’s dead yet Ester?” Asked Gadreel. 

“I’m pretty sure my icicle penetrated its skull.” Said the woman calmly. “A thing like that, unless it’s a higher class of demon or has certain enchantments on it, sufficient brain damage will be enough to kill it.”

“Well that was disappointing.” Muttered the older man. “I thought there was going to be a proper fight. So much for being named the destroyer.”

Gadreel sighed a little. “I’m sorry Michael. I really thought that he would have, you know, put up more of a fight. He always talked a big game. Guess he was just all talk.”

“Was he even a real demon?” Asked Ester. “It was just… so pathetic. Did we even need to conceal our presence with this dome?”

“Trust me, he is a demon.” Gadreel walked over to him humming happily to himself. “Let’s just take his head and head on back.” He knelt down next to Apollyon and took out a rather large hunting knife. “To think, a monster like you thought they could be anything but a monster. You were nothing more than a stain on this world. No one will miss you.”

Moving fast wasn’t enough. He was taking too long over thinking things. Apollyon couldn’t survive like this. He didn’t want to die. He was scared because of the cracks forming in his mind’s eye. He wanted to survive. No, he didn’t want to just survive, he wanted to live. He wanted to live in this world, in Pelican Town, with Sebastian. These fanatics weren’t going to take that away from him. They were not sending him back to the Void.

With a blood curdling roar Apollyon sprung up and knocked Gadreel to the ground. Time seemed to slow down as Apollyon felt the last of his razor sharp teeth burst through his gums seconds before he sank them deep into Gadreel’s shoulder. He wanted to rip him open right then and there, but he didn’t have enough time. There were two others there. He released Gadreel and quickly put some distance between himself and the magic users.

He heard Michael laugh as Ester started to quickly form more ice crystals. “This is more like it. A real fight.”

***

Blue and Green were out enjoying the nice winter weather. Now was the time to make tiny snowmen and snow goons. Mainly because most of the humans would spend more time inside rather than outside in the cold. Junimos didn’t experience the cold the same way people did.

Tonight they had decided to head down to Hellfire farm and make a couple of snow goons to brighten up Apollyon’s day. They wanted to encourage him and make him feel wanted here in Pelican Town.

“I’m gonna make the biggest snow goon!” Squealed Blue. “It’s gonna be so big! Bigger than the evil pink monster that tries to nom on us!”

“Yeah, sure. You do that.” Said Green as they picked up another twig for their snow goons. When they looked up again they couldn’t help but frown. “Purple dome magic…”

Blue frowned and looked up at the purple dome. As far as they knew it was practically invisible to human folks, but to magic folks like themselves it was pretty obvious. Normally this type of thing was only put up when the Wizard and the Witch were fighting about something so as not to alert the towns people to their bitter feuding. Why were they fighting on Apollyon’s farm?

“… Should we come back later?” Asked Blue.

Green shrugged. “Might as well see what stage of fighting they are up to. If they are almost done we might as well stick around and make our snow goons. If not we’ll come back tomorrow.”

The two Junimos happily marched up to the dome and easily breached the barrier. To their horror they didn’t see the Witch and the Wizard battling it out but instead three strangers beating the shit out of Apollyon. One second the farmer would be dodging ice shards, the next he was getting thrown up into the air, and then he got slammed down only to have to try and avoid some crazy man with a giant light sword.

Blue was freaking out. “Why are they attacking him?! He’s our hero! He’s good! Are these people bad? But their magic is channelling Yoba’s energy? I don’t understand! What’s going on Green?”

Green was shaken to their core. They didn’t expect something like this to ever happen. In all their years they had never seen such a brutal act of savagery being committed against someone in the name of Yoba. They watched in horror as the man with the giant sword took a swing at Apollyon and managed to cut deep into his cheek, ripping out a large chunk of flesh and exposing his teeth.

“… The Wizard. We need to get the Wizard. Now.” Green grabbed Blue’s little stick arm and raced as fast as they could along the edge of Apollyon’s property. They needed the Wizard to speak to these evil people, try to make them understand that Apollyon was a good person. They had to.

***

After Apollyon had left, Sebastian made himself some hot chocolate and sat at his desk to watch a movie. He was going to have to insist on Apollyon getting a laptop or something so he could play some newer movies, or at least movies he didn’t have. After he was about halfway done with the movie he picked up his laptop and moved to the bed to get more comfortable.

Almost immediately he flinched when he sat on something sharp. He was surprised to see it was Apollyon’s house keys. They must have fallen out of his pocket while they were, well, the thought of what they were doing earlier made him blush with mild embarrassment. He wondered why Apollyon hadn’t come back for the keys yet, but knowing him he was probably too embarrassed or something like that.

With a sigh, Sebastian shoved the keys into his pocket and started to walk to Apollyon’s farm. Snow was starting to fall. Maybe tomorrow Apollyon would be spending most of the day shovelling snow? He could try and help with that. Key word being try. He didn’t have much upper body strength.

As he grew closer and closer to the farm he couldn’t help but feel that something was a little off. The night was still. Too still. He couldn’t even hear the sound of animals scurrying around or any night life in general. It made him a little uneasy, but he’d feel better once he was with Apollyon again.

But once he crossed the thresh hold into the farm he could see why it was called Hellfire. The land was completely trashed, trees were ripped up and the side of the chicken coop had been smashed in. Blood streaked the snow in erratic patterns. Worst of all though was the fight he had seen in front of him; Apollyon was bloodied and bruised as he attempted to fend off magical attacks from some crazy woman and a guy with a huge sword.

“What the fuck?”

Suddenly the cold steal of a knife pressed against his throat and a familiar voice spoke into his ear. “Good to see you again Sebastian.” Purred Gadreel. “Glad you showed up. Hopefully with you here we can finally put this demon to rest.”

***

With every strike Apollyon’s rage grew. He needed a plan. It took time for that woman Ester to conjure up more ice shards to shoot at him but during that time Michael would swing his sword at him to make sure he couldn’t go for her. It was a good plan, but he also had one. Although it was very dangerous and would probably end with him getting a sword in the face, but at this point he didn’t have much of a choice.

Once Ester fired the last ice shard at him, Apollyon stood his ground and watched Michael swing his sword down at his face. He hardly had any time to think, but he still managed to do it. He snapped his hands tightly on either side of the sword mere inches from his face. Whatever magical material this thing was made from seared his flesh like he had put it straight on white hot metal.

Michael seemed impressed by this. “Ha, you’re tougher than I thought you punk ass little shit. But you don’t stand a chance. This is holy light straight from the Yoba plane itself. Your hands are gonna melt off before you wrangle this out of my hands.”

“You think I want a weapon from that fucked up place?” Snarled Apollyon. “I don’t give a shit about some fucked up bastard of a deity that hates me for existing.”

The man grinned and pushed harder against Apollyon’s hands. He seemed to relish in the perceived pain he was causing him. “Just give up already. Give up and we will make it quick. Better to die quick then draw it out.”

“Fuck you.” With as much strength as he could muster he shoved the blade to the side and leapt out of the way just as another barrage of ice shards struck, several of which hit and affectively incapacitated Michael. The shock that Ester had over hitting her comrade was just enough time for Apollyon to get close to her. He knocked her tome out of her hands and knocked her to the ground. “All I fucking wanted to do was live in peace. Why the fuck did you bastards have to do this to me?”

He opened his mouth with every intention to bite her face off when Gadreel called out to him. “Um, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You kill Ester I kill Sebastian.”

Apollyon whipped his head around and stared in shock. Gadreel had a knife pressed against a terrified Sebastian’s throat. Why was Sebastian here? There was no reason for him to be here. He should have been home. He should have been.

“…” He swallowed thickly and got off Ester. A new rage was starting to build up inside him. Before he was just mad that they were trying to kill him, but now, now he was so furious he was finding it almost difficult to keep calm when he spoke. “How dare you. How fucking dare you… You’re a bastard and a coward…” He took a few steps towards Gadreel. He was going to murder him. “You coming after me is one thing. That’s the path you chose to follow, but using an innocent life against me? That’s a new low even for you.”

Gadreel shrugged. “Honestly I doubt you actually care about any human life, but you seem to like to play the empathy card so why not see how far you will go?”

“A-Apollyon…” Said Sebastian quietly. “What’s going on? Who are these people?”

Gadreel laughed. “Oh you poor unfortunate soul. No surprise Apollyon hasn’t told you. We three magic users work for Yoba and cleans the world as best we can by eradicating Void entities at all costs. Apollyon himself is a rather annoying Void entity which we plan to eliminate tonight... well, hopefully only he will die, if we have to kill you too it’s no skin off my nose. Yoba will forgive us for one innocent life in exchange for countless others that will be saved by your death.”

Apollyon could see the fear in Sebastian’s eyes as he tried to comprehend the danger he was in. There was no way Apollyon could let Sebastian die, but there was no way he was going to be able to get over to them before Gadreel slit his throat. The coward had him. Everything was crumbling away faster and faster by the second.

“… What will you do to him if I give up?” Asked Apollyon. “Will you kill him anyway?”

“No.” Said Ester calmly. “Any innocent life that hasn’t been eliminated in the act of destroying a Void creature has their memory wiped of the event and creature in general. Once you have died we plan on erasing you from the memory of everyone in town. It will be like you never came here.”

“…” Everyone would forget him, something he was planning to get the Wizard to do if he died. He didn’t expect to die like this though. But then again considering all the ways someone could die, dying to save someone else’s life seemed like a decent way to go. “Fine. You win.” He sank to his knees. “I surrender.”

Gadreel laughed. “Wow, how cute. You still want to pretend to be human up till the least second? You were born a demon and you’ll die a demon. Michael, eviscerate him. We’ll take back whatever we can scrape up.”

Apollyon smiled slightly and let out a small shaky laugh. This was it. He was going to die. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to go back. If this body was destroyed then he wouldn’t be able to stay here, but being here without Sebastian wouldn’t be worth it and him dying over something as meaningless as this would be tragic. He was terrified, but his need to protect Sebastian was stronger than his need to live.

“It’s okay Sebastian.” He said calmly. Apollyon needed to try and put Sebastian at ease even if it was just for a moment. “Everything is going to be alright. I wouldn’t ever let them hurt you… Sebastian, I lo-”

Before he could finish his sentence Michael came up behind him and stabbed him right through the chest. He felt the heat of the blade racing through his body and across his skin. He felt like he was shattering from within. But then it happened, the cracks that kept creeping into his life when times were the most desperateness and hopelessness of his situations had consumed him. Now they were part of him. His body was cracking up. His body fell apart like a giant meat puzzle.


	28. Void-beast, Apollyon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this chapter. If the last chapter was a huge bomb drop this one... eh, it might be slightly better, slightly worse. It all depends on your perspective. Also, the Wizard is 1000% done with this shit. Hope you all enjoy it. Kudos and comment if you are :D

Sebastian felt like his whole body had shut down. Apollyon had just been murdered right in front of him by these magic using bastards, and they were going to do what now? Erase his memory of him? What the fuck? What the fuck was going on? Why didn’t he move or do anything to try and stop this? He felt like he was going to be sick.

Gadreel hummed happily and let Sebastian go. It seemed that his usefulness was now over and therefore he was no longer of any use to them. The other two people didn’t seem to give a damn about him but truthfully neither did he. Apollyon was dead and he was still cursing himself for it. He just stood there. He stood there and let it happen. What the hell was wrong with him? He could have done something, right? His stomach lurched and he vomited.

The sound of him vomiting seemed to draw the attention of Ester. She sighed a little and walked over to him while the men were talking about how to best deal with the situation now. She crouched next to him and tried to muster up a comforting smile, but her eyes were cold.

“Look, I’m sure you thought Apollyon liked you or something but he didn’t he’s what we in the business call a level four demon. He takes possession of a human vessel and extinguishes the human soul within over time. They integrate themselves into society but their true nature always seeps through and when it does… Well it isn’t uncommon to find them doing awful things to humans. It was only a matter of time before he-”

“Shut up.” Hissed Sebastian. He could feel tears starting to well in his eyes as he stared down at the snow. “Apollyon isn’t... He wasn’t like that. You didn’t know him. He was a good person.”

Ester sighed a little. “You only say that because you know nothing about him. Not the real him. Not his true nature. You saw his teeth didn’t you? Humans don’t have teeth like a shark. Didn’t you see the cuts on his body? My ice crystals were aimed at the main arteries and veins. A normal human would have bled out long before you showed up. The palms of his hands were burnt to the bone from Michael’s holy sword. If he were human the light would have passed through him without harm. Even the spell Michael used to eviscerate him was a holy spell used for centuries to dispel demons from our world.”

“He wasn’t a demon…” Sebastian’s vision became blurred as tears finally started to fall. “H-he was the kindest person I’ve ever met… And you’ve murdered him.”

“I know you feel that way now, but you have just been fooled. Demons like Apollyon don’t live for anyone but themselves and their own agenda. They live to cause misery for everyone. Especially those foolish enough to get close to them.” She tilted Sebastian’s head up, still wearing that fake smile. “But don’t be sad. As a human you’re a child of Yoba and we as extensions of Yoba’s divine will can give your soul peace by purging the blight of Apollyon from your memory.”

“Extensions of Yoba’s divine will my hairy purple ass!” Roared the Wizard as he marched across the farm. His clothes were wrinkled and he looked extremely tired. Following behind him were a few Junimos, all squeaking and making weird arm gestures.

The magic users seemed to be surprised to see the Wizard and the Junimos. Ester quickly moved away from Sebastian and quickly re-joined her comrades. Gadreel took the lead and put on his most charming smile. “Ah, good evening sir. I see by your association with the Junimos you are aligned with Yoba?” 

The Wizard glared at them with pure malice. “Sir? How dare you address me as Sir. I am Rasmodius! I hold jurisdiction over Stardew Valley! The slaying of demons and any magical creature both malevolent and benevolent has to be approved by me! That includes Pelican Town! And you went and killed Apollyon? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Gadreel scowled. It seemed as though all pleasantries were over with. “Really? If you really were such a being as you claim, you would have executed that spawn the second it came here. Instead you let it thrive. We did you a favour.”

“A favour?!” The Wizard’s face was red with rage. “You murdered someone who was under the protection and care of the local Junimos! You know, Yoba’s divine helpers on this plane of existence? You might as well have killed a Junimo yourself! And you bastards have the audacity to call your selves extensions of Yoba’s divine will?”

As they continue to yell at each other Sebastian watched on in stunned silence. So apparently the Wizard really was a wizard and all the stuff Apollyon had been talking about was actually real and not some way to keep people at arm’s length, oh, and Junimos were real too. Speaking of the Junimos they were freaking out and making very sad mournful sounds. Some had gathered up small bundles of crocus and holly, and laid them down around the dismembered corps of Apollyon.

A green Junimo waddled up to Sebastian and climbed onto his leg. It squeaked and squealed, trying to communicate something to him, and although Sebastian couldn’t understand its language, the message was clear. It was sorry for his loss. Fresh tears were starting to fall and he couldn’t help but sob again.

Suddenly the Junimos started squealing and ran to hide behind Sebastian. Green looked down at them and made some wild gestures. In turn the Junimos started squealing and pointing to the bloody meat chunks… that were starting to pulsate… and leak a thick, black viscous fluid.

Sebastian gulped. “… Um, guys? Magic users? Wizard?”

A yellow Junimo ran over to the Wizard and started pulling on his robe to get his attention. The Wizard looked down at it and frowned. “What? What do you want?” He looked over at the flesh pile and made an annoyed sound. “Oh, of course. Of course this would happen. Lucky me.” He walked over to Sebastian and started drawing a protection circle around him. “You know what? All I wanted was to have a nice long sleep but no. You three idiots had to come here and do this bullshit. I’m over it. I’m done. You did this, you deal with it. Fuck you.” He sat next to Sebastian and angrily glared at Gadreel and his companions as the Junimos started to pile on top of Sebastian and the Wizard within the magic circle.

Gadreel, whom had not noticed the dead flesh’s new properties as of yet just rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about you stupid old man? And what’s with that magic circle? Expending that much energy to make something that shields you from a chaos demon from the very depths of the Void itself?” 

The Wizard was so done with this. “Well you three are the assholes that pissed it the fuck off in the first place. You take care of it.”

Suddenly a cacophony of tormented animal cries filled the air, mixing with the visceral sound of bones grinding and muscle fibre ripping. A gnarled misshapen arm clawed its way out of the flesh. The arm in question appears to be constructed of bones far too large and alien to belong to a human and the flesh that did cover it seemed to be made from some red and blackish substance that writhed and squirmed like worms under the moon light. That arm was quickly followed by another as the creature slowly pulled itself out of and absorbed the fleshy chunks into its own being. 

It was a Lovecraftian horror that Sebastian couldn’t pull his eyes away from. “Oh fuck… Is that… is that what he really looks like?” He whispered out to the world. 

The Wizard sighed a little and shook his head. “Technically no. He doesn’t really have a true demon form. In the Void he was just a shapeless blob of goo that slithered along, but he has had a human form for so long his own demon essence if you will has evolved to try and maintain his human physique. Seeing as how he completely lost his human shape his demon cells are trying and kind of failing to put him back together into a human shape.”

A misshapen blob full of covered vestigial eyes formed on its neck as the thing finally pulled its chest out to revel a gaping maw made of dozens of ribs, repurposed as teeth. Each one moved independently as cartilage that seemed to hold them in place bent, cracked, and repaired. A translucent membrane on the lower half of its body almost proudly displayed its intestines swirling around and around in a sickening manner. Its legs were bent and broken, covered in more of that disturbing worm like muscle tissue. It stood hunched over, not even at its full height, but it was clearly towering over everyone by several feet.

Sebastian’s heart was racing and his fight or flight response was kicking in. He needed to run. Everything about this situation was telling him to get the hell out of there, but when he tried to leave the Wizard held him back.

“Look, I know this is scary and everything, but trust me. Staying inside the magic circle is way safer then running around out there.” He sighed a little and brushed some hair out of his face. “Look, I have no real idea how Apollyon is going to react now that he is like this. His brain is probably still forming after getting diced up so badly.”

“Fucking damn it!” Yelled Gadreel. “Fuck it, next time we kill this thing we burn it! Attack!”

***

No one really knows what happens at the moment of death. Some believe there’s a bright light that you have to go towards. Some think that they will see their life flash before their eyes. Sometimes it’s their life in reverse. For Apollyon there was nothing. He felt like he was floating in an empty space devoid of gravity, colour and atmosphere in general.

He reached with whatever appendages he had and lets his claws sweep the sky in an attempt to tear at the darkness. He could feel limbs moving but not really in any extremities he recognised. He was instinctively reaching out to all corners. Each part of him reaching out tried to find something. What exactly he wasn’t sure. He just felt as though he needed to reach out.

Why was he here again? Oh that’s right, he was dead. This wasn’t the Void. There was too much nothing. This had to be some in between state of being. If he was in between did that mean he could choose where to go or was he stuck waiting here until he was forced here or there?

Why did he die in the first place? What was the reason? Because he wasn’t human. No, wait, yes there was that, but there was something else. Someone he cared for was in trouble. They were hurt? Going to get hurt. But by who? The people that killed him? Yes. That had to be it. Were they strong enough to protect themselves? Probably not if Apollyon was here. He needed to protect them.

He wanted out. He wanted out. He wanted out. He wanted out. He wanted out. He wanted out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. He needed to get out. He had to help them. He had to save them. He had to get rid of them. The threats.

One of his appendages reached out into the darkness and sunk into something. He had found a way out. It might not have been the way back but it was a start. He needed to pull himself out of this place. Where he was in this new place he couldn’t see and could hardly feel a thing.

He couldn’t see a damn thing but there was something else he could see. Their heat signatures maybe? His senses could see three of them and they gave off a strange smell. He couldn’t explain it but he didn’t like it. There was also another lingering smell that he couldn’t quite place but it was faint and made him happy. Where was it? Where was that familiar smell coming from? He wanted to find it.

Suddenly something heavy started raining down on him. Where was it coming from? Was it from these people that smelt bad? It had to. They were the only ones around he could clearly sense. They were the ones that killed him. They were the ones that were threatening to hurt their special person. The one they died to protect. The smell these things were giving off was the smell of an enemy. A new found rage bubbled up inside Apollyon. He let out a primal shriek and engaged his enemy.

***

So, Apollyon really was a demon, magic was real, Junimos were actually a thing, and Sebastian was essentially stuck inside a magic circle while his boyfriend rampaged around looking like a rejected Bloodborne boss. He couldn’t stop himself from shaking. One of the Junimos, a blue one, noticed his trembling and attempted to squeeze his hand. It didn’t really do much for him, but it made him feel slightly better than watching the other Junimos cheering on the fight.

The Wizard sighed and nudged a few Junimos. “Will you all shut up already? It’s bad enough you woke me up in the middle of the night because of these bastards. I don’t need you to give me a headache too.” Blue made a squeaking noise as it jumped from Sebastian to the Wizard. It squeaked and tugged on his arm. He sighed and looked over at Sebastian. “Um… Are you okay? This is kind of a lot to take in.”

“… Is this a normal day for you or something?” Sebastian found it hard to hide the quiver in his voice. 

“Eh, today’s been kind of sketchy.” He yawned a little. “So you knew that Apollyon was a demon this whole time right? The Junimos have been referring to you as the farmer’s partner or the smoking one… So I can only assume you two are together?”

“Well yeah we are and he did but I… Normal people don’t usually call themselves demons! I thought he just had some emotional issues not… That!” He gestured at Apollyon just in time to see him grab hold of Ester and pull her close as his rib jaws cracked open and snapped shut. Ester shrieked. Sebastian felt his stomach drop as he expected to see an explosion of blood paint the snow. Instead Apollyon threw her into Gadreel as it chewed up her spell book.

The Wizard hummed a little in amusement. “Interesting… Though I wouldn’t have held it against him if he ate her… Then again I don’t think that mouth is connected to a stomach, so I guess chewing her up?”

The thought of Apollyon going ahead and eating someone, or even killing someone, it disturbed him. He watched as Michael swung his blade into Apollyon’s arm and sides, but although each slash landed and sent a splatter or red and black flying it didn’t seem to bother Apollyon in the slightest. He just batted him away like it was nothing.

Through sheer strength and determination Michael managed to stab Apollyon through the chest again. It seemed like he was attempting to perform whatever spell he had done before to turn him into chunks. However, despite glowing cracks starting to appear on Apollyon’s body he didn’t give a fuck. He grabbed hold of Michael and threw him across the farm. Apollyon then pulled the sword out of himself and crushed it between his hands.

Gadreel attempted to cast some kind of magic at him, but Apollyon grabbed him in his giant claw and slammed him repeatedly into the ground. Apollyon let out a triumphant roar and tossed Gadreel’s limp body over at Ester.

The Wizard sighed a little and called out to them. “Hey! If you morons are done getting you asses kicked, clear off! If you stay any longer you’re all going to die… Is that guy dead?”

Ester shook her head and quickly started drawing symbols in the snow. “Unconscious. We’ll be leaving you to deal with this one Rasmodius. Michael, we’re leaving!” Michael seemed reluctant to leave the fight, but he quickly went over to his partners and the three of them vanished in the blink of an eye.

With the three of them gone Apollyon seemed to calm down quite a bit. He sat down in the snow, his jawed ribcage snapped shut, and whatever tension he seemed to have in his muscles seemed to relax. He made a few strange guttural sounds as he aimlessly clawed at the snow.

“… Do you think it’s safe to leave the circle now?” Asked Sebastian quietly.

The Wizard shrugged. “Honestly? I’m not too sure… While we’re in the circle he can’t see or hear us.  
We’re invisible for the moment…” He sighed a little. “I could try trapping him in some kind of object, like a lamp or a puzzle box?”

As the Wizard was thinking out loud Sebastian watched as some of the Junimos ventured out of the circle and over to Apollyon. He held his breath when Green caught Apollyon’s attention. He grabbed the apple shaped spirit in his claws and made a strange wheezing noise. He then put it down and promptly went about ignoring it again. Green seemed pleased with this and started to squeak and dance around Apollyon, and was quickly joined by the other Junimos. All of which seemed to feel happy and safe around him in this demonic form.

Sebastian was still wary about all this. Hell, his mind was still trying to wrap his head around everything. He was so confused. His whole world and understanding of reality in general had been turned upside down. He’d have to apologise to Abigail for saying that all her magic and occult stuff was bullshit. It obviously wasn’t.

The Wizard sighed and raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Screw it. Containment spell it is. I can’t be bothered to try and stuff him into a pickle jar or something. Hey Junimos! Quit annoying the giant bloodthirsty demon for five seconds! I need ten of you to come with me and set up some crystals.” Some of the Junimos made reluctant sounds and quickly scuttled over to the Wizard. 

Sebastian looked over at the Wizard. “What are you going to do?”

“Make a containment field that boarders the farm.” He waved his hands and made a large bag appear. He started to hand out large green crystals to the Junimos that came to him. They seemed to be very excited to be given the crystals and happily bounced around while holding them above their heads. “When activated the magic they will emit will make it impossible for Apollyon to leave and will cause any humans coming this way to forget why they came here and go home. I can’t allow anyone to come across Apollyon like this. He could murder someone…. Stay in the circle until I come back.”

The Wizard cautiously took a step outside the circle, keeping his eyes on Apollyon. Once he felt Apollyon had no interest in him the Wizard set off with the Junimos to create the barrier. Sebastian felt very uneasy about being left alone, but he didn’t really have a choice. He stayed in the circle and watched Apollyon.

He continued to shuffle around a little and dig at the snow with his claws. Occasionally Apollyon would pause and make a few strange wheezing noises, like he was sniffing the air. It looked strange to say the least. Kind of like an animal exploring a new environment. But that just made Sebastian wonder; was this the real Apollyon? Some huge animalistic beast? Did he even remember him or know who he was anymore? He had no idea.

Green waddled up to Sebastian and started to pull on his pants. It squeaked at him as it tried to get him to move. It tried so hard it actually slipped in the snow and fell onto its back not once, but twice. This Junimo was very determined. 

“… You want me to follow you?” Sebastian was very hesitant. Apollyon beat the crap out of those three and he had no idea what kind of fucked up magic abilities they probably had to prevent them from instantly dying. If he stepped out and Apollyon decided he didn’t like him he’d probably just have to slam him into the ground once to kill him. However the Junimo was persistent and Sebastian reluctantly took a small step outside the magic circle.

***

Apollyon was sad. He had gotten rid on the things that had hurt him and killed him, but he couldn’t smell that familiar scent that made him happy anymore. It wasn’t fair. Some small spirit things had wandered up to him, but they didn’t smell like enemies so he let them go. But the smell of the familiar person was gone.

Maybe he should go looking for them? Where did they live? He wanted to see them again. They lived… somewhere dark and underground, but in the mountains? Did they live in the caves? Were there caves in the mountains? He was going to go find them.

Suddenly a strange smoky scent filled his nose. It was that familiar scent again. Stronger than ever. It made him extremely happy. He happily and swiftly moved to the source of the scent. He was pleased to see that the source of the smell had a rather large heat signature. When he got close enough he reached out, delicately wrapping his claws around it and pulled it close to his chest. This thing, whatever it was made him happy. He wanted it. He loved it. He was going to keep it safe. A pleased and satisfied rumbling bubbled up from deep inside his body.

***

Sebastian was silently freaking out now. Seconds after he stepped outside the magic circle with Green, Apollyon grabbed hold on him and decided to hold him flush against the teeth that made up his ribcage. Being this close was damn horrifying. At any second Apollyon could decide to open his jaws and shove him inside. However he seemed to be content with just holding him off the ground.

It was kind of scary how easily Apollyon could lift him up now. Did he always possess this strength or was this just some impossible demon ability that he now possessed? Could Apollyon even hear him now?

“… H-hey. Can you hear me, Apollyon?” He asked. “Can you understand me?” Apollyon made no movement or sound that would indicate he could hear him. Sebastian sighed a little, unsure what he was meant to do now. He looked down at Green who seemed to be slightly alarmed. “… Um, help me maybe?”

Green nodded and got a pointy stick. They started poking Apollyon’s foot, but it had little to no effect on him. Still the Junimo squeaked and bounced around. Trying to communicate and get Apollyon’s attention. Seeing as how this wasn’t getting him anywhere, Sebastian risked it and attempted to try and wriggle out of Apollyon’s claw.

This move would prove to be disastrous because as soon as he did, Apollyon’s thick toothed ribcage cracked and grinded as they started to part and a dark growl echoed through the empty cavity. Yoba, Sebastian was starting to fear for his life, again. He stopped moving and quickly screwed his eyes shut.

Suddenly Apollyon dropped Sebastian and screeched. He writhed on the ground, kicking up snow. A strange, thin white light weaved its way around his form. Sebastian had no idea what was happening until several Junimos jumped on him and started to go through his pockets. Blue pulled out a pendant and held it above their head in triumph before throwing it into the pond. Was that the pendant the Wizard had sent him in the mail? He had completely forgotten about that. 

As the Junimos cheered and clapped for Blue who was shamelessly bowing down at the praise, Sebastian turned his attention back to Apollyon. He wasn’t screaming anymore but he was still on the ground, wheezing. He looked like he was in shock or something.

Against his better judgement Sebastian moved to Apollyon’s side and hesitantly touched his arm. “Hey there Apollyon…” When he touched him Apollyon quickly moved his arm away and made a tiny rumbling sound. Was he scared of him now? Sebastian found that hard to believe but still, he tried to talk in a calming voice to ease him. “It’s okay. No need to be scared of me… I didn’t know that was going to hurt you. I’m sorry, just… Please believe me…”

He slowly put his hand on Apollyon’s arm again. This time Apollyon didn’t pull away. He just stayed where he was on the ground making a series of guttural grunts and huffs. It kind of reminded Sebastian a little of rescue animal videos that would sometimes pop up on his social media feed. It seemed like despite how dangerous he was Apollyon was still just a strange, shy, nice guy.

Sebastian smiled a little. “That’s right. Just stay calm. I’m here for you. I’ll make sure you’re safe. Okay? It’s my fault you got hurt so badly in the first place… So just leave it to me, okay?” He still had no idea if Apollyon could hear him or understand him, but he made a noise that kind of sounded like a purr and relaxed his muscles. Sebastian sighed, this was not how he expected tonight to turn out.


	29. Parents return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you all enjoy. Remember to Kudos and Comment :D

Things went surprisingly smoothly after Apollyon’s unfortunate transformation into his demonic form. The Wizard was able to take care of most of the magic things without much trouble, the Junimos chewed out the Wizard for giving Sebastian something that could hurt Apollyon, Sebastian sat by Apollyon’s front door doing his best to try and come to terms with everything, and Apollyon himself looking like he was exploring the farm. It was much like an animal exploring a new environment.

Apollyon’s mind was still underdeveloped to the point where he didn’t seem to understand what was happening around him, but he seemed happy enough. He picked up random things in his claws and would either sniff it, crush it, or eat it. Sometimes all three. 

The Wizard had sent Sebastian home while Apollyon was distracted and told him not to come back for a few weeks. Unfortunately for the Wizard one of Junimos, Purple, lead Sebastian back to the farm the next day. It seemed like the Junimos had decided that Sebastian needed to be here with Apollyon, as strange as that was.

Apollyon quite enjoyed Sebastian turning up and would follow him around the farm. But he kept a fair distance between them. It seemed like after the first time he grabbed Sebastian and got shocked for it he wasn’t going to take any chances and would let Sebastian approach him instead. It was kind of cute.

Sebastian sat on the porch and fiddled a little on his phone as he watched Apollyon wander around his silo. Every now and then he would peek around to see if Sebastian was still there, then he would quickly hide away again. When he did things like that it was hard for Sebastian to tell if the many eyes on his bloated head could actually see or if they were vestigial and held no actual function. He managed to get a few photos of him.

It made Sebastian chuckle a little. He walked over to Apollyon, making sure he knew he was approaching. Apollyon tilted his head to the side and lowered himself so his chest was pressed against the ground. Sebastian smiled a little and happily patted his head. “You doing okay today?”

Apollyon made a few small happy sounds.

“… You know, when most people talk about having a monster boyfriend they usually refer to things like vampires and werewolves. Something that’s a monster for like a few hours and then they are back to being human.”

Apollyon continued to make small happy sounds that rumbled deep within his chest cavity.

Suddenly a few Jinumos came running by. They waved up at Sebastian and started to make happy squeaking sounds. They jumped and spun around and made gleeful noises. They seemed to be excited about something.

“-important to me.” Said a strangely familiar female voice as it drew closer. “I need to make sure that my baby bean is okay. Rasmodius sounded very upset. You didn’t have to come with me Colt.”

“Of course I did. One of us needs to be a little objective.”

Sebastian was a little surprised that they were here, but considering they knew all about Apollyon’s condition it was pretty obvious Rasmodius could get into contact with them. He wondered how they would react to him accepting this side of him. Heck, he was pretty sure they didn’t know they were dating at this point either.

When they crossed the threshold into the farm, Apollyon sat up and immediately went over to investigate. Elizabeth made a sound that sounded like a startled scream and Apollyon made a pleased rumble that resinated deep within his chest.

“Baby bean!” She gasped. “You got messed up!”

Sebastian looked over at them just in time to see Apollyon pick up Elizabeth and hold her close to his toothed ribcage, like he had previously done to him. Colt glared at him and took a dagger out of his pocket. “Put her down right now or you’re getting a knife in the eye.”

“No need to be so violent with him Colt.” Scolded Elizabeth. “Baby bean, put me down now. Please. You don’t want to upset me now, do you?” Apollyon made a displeased sound but put her down and sat down. It was about then when Elizabeth noticed Sebastian. She was surprised but smiled and waved at him. “Hello. You’re Sebastian, right? What are you doing here?”

Sebastian shrugged and walked over to them. “The Junimos wanted me to come here. Guess they wanted me to hang out with my boyfriend or something…”

Elizabeth almost did a double take as she looked between Sebastian and Apollyon. “Really? Well, congratulations I guess are in order, but um… Are you sure? No offence but inter species relationships don’t tend to work out very well. I’m afraid many romance novels have lied about that notion.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Apollyon hasn’t tried to murder me or anything.” He walked over to Apollyon and carefully put his hand on his shoulder. “So… Are you two staying here or something?”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yes. You see, Rasmodius contacted me about the awful incident the other day and I had to drop everything and come straight here. My poor baby bean is very vulnerable while he is in this state. Any incident where his brain is damaged in any way makes him a little… stupid. And since he was apparently diced up into little bits it’s a miracle he doesn’t have the brain capacity of a sea sponge right now.”

“Could have fooled me.” Muttered Colt. “Let’s get inside. It’s bloody freezing out here.” He walked into the house and then immediately walked back out. “There’s no food in there. I’m going to the store.”

“Okay, be careful dear.” Said Elizabeth as he marched away. When he was out of ear shot she sighed a little. “I’m sorry that Colt is acting so rude today. He’s never been much of a fan of demons and what not.”

“Yeah, I kind of guessed.” Muttered Sebastian.

Goblin slipped out of the house and looked up Apollyon. She glared at him and meowed loudly. Demanding food and attention. She didn’t seem to give a damn about his appearance. Apollyon made a small grunting noise and picked her up, balancing her in the palm of his hand.

Elizabeth beamed. “Oh, you have such a cute kitty! How adorable! What’s this cutie’s name, Sebastian?”

“Her name is Goblin.”

“Goblin… What a fitting name.” She mused. She walked over to the front door and held it open. “Alright, everyone inside. I’ll put a pot of tea on. Maybe coffee. Apollyon dear, put down the cat.” She ushered Sebastian inside and Goblin quickly zipped back in to sit by the fire in the kitchen. Apollyon made a disgruntled noise as he lowered himself and tried to squeeze through the door. His body creaked and groaned as flesh and bone scraped across the wooden frame until he managed to pop through. His chest rumbled a little and Apollyon sat on the floor in front of the bedroom door.

Sebastian sat on the couch and watched Apollyon. He had to hunch over as he was seated to fit comfortably in the room. “… How long is he going to be like this?”

Elizabeth shrugged as she looked through the cupboards. “I’m not too sure dear. The last time Apollyon showed off his demon form, that I know of, he was just a child. It took him about three days to go back to normal… Then again he only suffered a slit throat back then and not full blown dismemberment… So anywhere between three days and maybe a month? His body needs time to remember what a human is.” Soon she sat down by Sebastian and handed him a cup of coffee.

He gratefully took it and took a few sips. “So…”

“So the Junimos have revealed themselves to you? That’s very impressive. They don’t normally do that for non-magic folk.”

Sebastian shrugged. “They showed up just before Apollyon came back as that… They’ve been bringing me down here to see him every day since. Still don’t know why.”

She nodded knowingly. “Sounds like they are playing match maker again… Junimos are very strange creatures. Their motives are very obscure but you can rest assured everything they do is to help shape the world for Yoba.”

“I see… What’s going to happen now, like with the people that tried to kill him?”

“That’s up for the ICGMAC to decide.” Elizabeth hummed a little and took a sip of her drink. “That would be the International Court Governing Magic’s Arcane and Commonplace. ICGMAC. Rasmodius has very high standing within groups that choose to follow Yoba’s path to magic and he has the respect of many users that channel the Void. There is a whole world you don’t know of run by magic.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Sebastian never really gave much thought to magic or anything within that realm. All the really knew was stuff he had gotten from movies and things he had half heard from Abigail when she was going on and on. He would need to learn more about the Void and Void demons of he was going to relate more to Apollyon.

Elizabeth put her cup on the table and smiled at him. “Well, since you have seen the Junimos and you know of Apollyon’s true self, do you want learn more?”

Sebastian frowned a little. “What do you mean?”

A small smile made its way across Elizabeth’s lips. “I’m asking if you would like me and Colt to teach you about magic. I use Void magic all the time and Colt is a freelance demon exorcist.”

“… He’s a what?”

She chuckled. “It’s best to let him explain it. I’m not that good at it. But Bastian dear, I would very much like to teach you about magic. I don’t expect you to want to start casting spells or contacting spirits. I’d just like to educate you about Apollyon.”

“… Okay.”

***

Apollyon was happy. He got to explore this place every waking moment and sniff all kinds of interesting new things. And the person with the familiar scent that he liked kept coming back. That made him really happy. However he didn’t pick them up again in case he got hurt again. That wasn’t fun. It was better for him to let them come over when they felt comfortable.

Then two new people showed up. One of them had a strong maternal scent which put him at ease and made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The other one kind of put him on edge a little. But with the other two were putting him at ease so he didn’t mind it so much. There was also another small thing wandering around the farm. It felt kind of leather and made little rumbling sounds from its chest, like him. So he liked it a lot too.

They had taken him into a strange place, but it was nice and warm, completely different from outside. So once again he was happy. Apollyon stretched and laid down on the ground. He was happy. The people here made him happy. All was well. Another content rumbling made its way through his body. However he wanted to be closer to the people he was interested in.

He got up and slowly slinked over towards the one with the maternal smell and lied down by her. She gently touched him and when she spoke she could hear her words resinating through his skull. It was similar to when he had picked her up earlier. Was this the bond between parent and child? Maybe it was just her magic? The other person he liked didn’t do that when they picked them up.

“He’s very much like a cat or dog now, isn’t he?” Said the woman calmly. “But most demons are not as docile as he is in this state. I think it’s because he’s had a human upbringing.” There was a pause for a moment and then she laughed. “Oh Sebastian, you’re just too much.” It was at that point she moved her hand off him. 

Sebastian. Yes, that sounded familiar. Was that the name of the other person in the room? He liked that name. It was a name right? Had to be. It made him feel happy to know their name. He wondered if he could say it. He had a go at it but just ended up making an odd hissing and rumbling sound. Not what he wanted to say, but a good start.

“…” Apollyon wanted to touch Sebastian. He very slowly reached over towards him, but the woman quickly grabbed his arm.

“No. Bad Apollyon. You don’t try and grab people. Grabbing people like that is bad. No grabbing people.” She said calmly. “Now you better not try and grab at Sebastian or anyone else like that again. Okay? Grabbing is very naughty. You are not a naughty boy are you?”

Apollyon grumbled a little and retracted his arm. He wasn’t naughty. He was a good boy. He just wanted to touch Sebastian a little. Maybe cuddle him. Give him a smooch. Well, once he figured out what a smooch was, how to do it, and why he wanted to perform a smooch with Sebastian in the first place.

Suddenly the smell of the person that put him on edge entered this place. He didn’t like this and made a small defensive rumbling sound, but his warning seemed to be largely ignored by everyone else. That annoyed him, but he couldn’t really do much about it. The woman he liked had already told him that grabbing people was bad so he couldn’t just go ahead and grab hold of this person and get rid of them. Unhappy rumbles was the best he could do to show his displeasure.

While Apollyon was feeling upset about this he felt another hand reach out and touch him. It was this Sebastian. It made him so happy. He wanted to hold him and smooch him even if he had no idea what smooching was. Instead he opted to lean into his hand instead. It made him feel… warm. He liked the warmth that came from being around him. He was happy. He wanted Sebastian to keep patting him.

***

Sebastian continued to keep patting Apollyon while Elizabeth helped Colt put things away. He was thankful that she had offered to teach him about magic and the Void, but he wondered if that was alright? Could she just teach magic to anyone or would she get in trouble? Maybe she would be okay if he didn’t try and cast magic? He’d need to clarify that later.

Apollyon made a small sound that was kind of similar to a purr. It made him smile a little. “Don’t worry Apollyon. We’ll look after you, okay? Just try and concentrate on getting better… I’d really like it if you could talk to me soon, or show me that you can understand what I’m saying…”

He wondered how much longer he could stay over at Apollyon’s farm while he was like this? It was true he had intended to stay over at his farm a fair bit during the winter, but he was going to do some work for clients every other day. Maybe he could bring his laptop over? He wasn’t too sure if having his laptop around all this magic stuff was safe. Would magic overload his battery? Fry his motherboard? Would Apollyon sit on it at some point? It would probably be best if he worked from home every other day. Apollyon’s parents were here now. They could look after him better than he could.


	30. Shots and Junimo stuff ups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick question, would anyone be interested in seeing some sketches I did of a demon Apollyon? Just asking because I really like drawing monsters and ended up doing a few mock up ideas of what he could look like. I didn't really end up using any of them but just picked a few things I liked and fused them together. If you're interested let me know and I'll leave a link to them in the next chapter. Until then please kudos and comment if you like :D

It had been a few days since Apollyon’s parents had moved into his farm and things had been going well, at least that’s what Sebastian had assumed. He hadn’t really had time to go back to the farm. After the family had moved in Sebastian ended up getting buried under a mountain of work. He didn’t understand why people left it to the end of the year to fix their problems.

He’d managed to slip away from work at around three and walked to the saloon. He needed a drink. Gus seemed a little surprised to see him so early in the day and not on a Friday. Never the less Gus gave him whatever the house cider was and Sebastian slid into the booth by the bear statue. He started to look through his phone just to see if Sam or Abigail were up to anything. He had turned off notifications for group chat while he was working so he wouldn’t get distracted.

Nothing much seemed to be happening. Abigail got grounded again and Sam was asking about song lyrics. There was also a discussion going on about what to do for Sebastian’s birthday. They had given him a bunch of things to choose from like going to the movies. He assumed they wanted him to get back to them with what he’d decide soon before the festival of ice in a few days.

He hadn’t really put much thought into it, what with work and Apollyon all happening. He really wanted to spend some time with Apollyon like he suggested that they do before everything happened. Almost immediately he remembered the not so subtle hint that Apollyon was planning on having sex with him on his birthday. His face went red at the thought. There was no way that was happening now though. He had the mind of a stupid animal and as far as he could tell no actual reproductive parts. Unless he was more like a lizard or fish at this point.

“…” He quickly downed his drink. He didn’t feel he was drunk enough to entertain the idea of fucking a demon. “I need something stronger…”

Suddenly Colt slipped into the booth and pushed a shot of something at him. “Honey whisky.” He muttered. “Smells sweet, tastes like nail polish, but it keeps you warm.” He downed his own shot and shuddered a little. “Never gotten used to the taste.”

Sebastian ignored the shot for the moment. “Why are you doing here? How the heck did you even sneak in here and get a drink? The doors are so old the creak whenever they are opened.”

“I’m used to getting around unnoticed.” He took a book out of his jacket pocket and started flicking through it. “Well, today’s as good as any to start your crash course in demonology. You ready?”

“… Um, shouldn’t we be at the farm for this?”

Colt rolled his eyes. “I’d prefer that too kid, but Elizabeth wants to have some mother son bonding time. Bloody stupid if you ask me. Demons should just be killed… But I’m guessing you’re the kind of idiot that is all for having that filth around since you’re fucking him.”

Sebastian could feel his face burning with embarrassment. “If you hate Apollyon so much why do you stay with Elizabeth?”

“She’s a very compassionate and empathetic woman. She needs someone that thinks with their brain and not with their heart when it comes to people. There’s also the fact that I love her and don’t want that demon hurting her.” He picked up his empty shot glass and tilted it, trying to see if anymore alcohol would accumulate in the corner. “Anyway, if Elizabeth is stupid for caring for that thing you’re down right retarded. I fucking warned you to stay away from him but no, no one ever listens to me.”

“… Maybe because you call people retarded?” Suggested Sebastian coldly. Colt was officially the worst person ever. Maybe slightly better than the people that actually killed Apollyon, but still, terrible human.

“I’m blunt. Fuck everyone else. I don’t care if people think I’m an asshole. You tend to become cynical when you deal with idiots your whole life.”

Sebastian was about to snap at him with some witty comeback, but before he could Sam and Abigail happened to walk in. Somehow it took all of three seconds for Abigail to notice him and made a beeline for him. “Hey Seb! Long time no see. We were wondering when you were gonna… Who’s this?”

Colt quickly cut in before Sebastian could say a word. “I’m Colt. Apollyon’s step-father. Kid’s sick at the moment so me and the misses came down to nurse him back to health.”

Abigail nodded a little. “I see… Soooooo, I’m Abigail and the blond ordering lunch is Sam. So Apollyon…”

Colt chuckled a little. “If you’re wondering if I know Sebastian’s been screwing around with Apollyon, yeah, I know. I think Sebastian can do better than him.”

Abigail gave Sebastian a strange look. He couldn’t tell if she thought Colt was a douche bag or if she was giving him a sympathetic look. “Well… Um, hope Apollyon gets better soon. When you two are done come over and have lunch with us Seb.” She quickly headed over to Sam and dragged him to a table before he could come over and say hi to him. More than likely she was going to fill him in on who the heck Colt was.

Said man sighed a little and put his book back into his jacket pocket. “Fuck it. We’ll do demonology later. Come by the farm.” He got up and left the saloon. The second he was gone Abigail and Sam quickly moved over to him.

“What’s his deal anyway?” Asked Abby. “He’s a bit of an asshole.”

“Pretty much.”

Sam frowned a little. “So like, didn’t you say he’s really shit to Apollyon or something?”

“… Yeah.” He picked up the shot Colt had gotten for him and gave it a scrutinizing look. He had no idea if he should actually drink this or not. He wasn’t a very big whisky drinker.

Abby pouted. “So this means you and Apollyon haven’t had much alone time?”

“Unfortunately no. But it can’t be helped. He’s sick and his folks are here. What am I mean to do? Kick them out so I can spend time with a person who’s sick and just wants to sleep?” There was no way he could just tell them that Apollyon was currently a huge fuck off demon. The Wizard would probably not be very pleased about that, and he had no idea what Elizabeth and Colt’s opinion on the matter was. It would be best for everyone if as few people knew about Apollyon’s condition.

“That sucks.” Whined Abby. “If I had a boyfriend that lived alone like Apollyon I’d be super annoyed his parents came over just because he got the sniffles. He can’t be that sick, right? If he was Harvey would have gone to see him.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Whatever. It’s not like they are going to be here forever.”

They paused their conversation for a bit when Gus came by with their pizza so they could eat. Despite this fact Sam still insisted with talking with a mouth half full of food. “So what do you wanna do for your birthday? We could spend the night in Zuzu city?”

“Yeah, we could bring Apollyon along.” Suggested Abby. “As long as we don’t do anything too crazy he should be up for it, right? We can rent you and him a nice hotel room for the night while Sam and I bum it in a motel six.”

“Why do we have to bum it?” Whined Sam.

“Because that can be our present for Seb. He and Apollyon can either sleep in a nice fancy place together, or fuck in a nice fancy place together and then sleep.” Explained Abby rather bluntly. “Either way I think you can sacrifice a night sleeping on a bed for a crappy couch for one night.”

“Fine… Wait, why am I sleeping on the couch and not you?”

“Because I have back problems and sleeping on a couch hurts… and we are relatively poor so we probably can’t swing for that and a hotel room for Seb and Apollyon.” Explained Abby. She let out an annoyed sigh. “It’s at times like this I wish we lived in a country with dedicated love hotels. That would be pretty sweet.”

Sebastian could feel himself blushing again. “Apollyon’s pretty fucked up and his mum is kind of doting on him a lot. Even though he’s an adult I doubt that she’ll let him out of bed. I had a hard enough time getting in to see him and she knows we’re dating.”

Abby pouted. “Bummer. Movie and pizza night at my place then?”

“Yeah.”

***

From the bushes that surrounded the farm, Purple and Red watched one of the strangest damn things they had ever seen. A pretty witch lady was throwing a stick and the farmer, in his monstrously deformed state, chased after it only to give it back to her, only for her to throw it again and the cycle repeated. It was odd to them.

“I do not understand this.” Whined Purple. “So the farmer got all chopped up and then he came back as that? How?”

Red rolled their eyes and climbed up onto one of the green glowing rocks that the Wizard made them plant around the boarder of the farm. “Because he’s a demon straight from the Void. Void demons and ethereal creatures are kind of weird shaped and spooky looking. The farmer just happens to be all super spooky looking.”

“… His head doesn’t have as many eyeballs as it did yesterday.” 

“Yeah. That’s good. He’s also getting back to his normal height too. He’ll look less like a demon and more like a human in no time.”

Purple hummed a little and also attempted to climb the glowing rock. “So, is the smoking one still with Mr Hero demon farmer?”

Red stuck their leg out and tried to push them away. “From what I can tell, yes. Turns out that the smoking one is pretty cool with magic… I mean, he hasn’t gone crazy and killed himself.”

“We need a better bench mark for people that can or cannot handle magic things. Madness is not good… Quit kicking me!”

“I’m not kicking I am pushing!”

“Same thing!” Purple grabbed Red’s leg and pulled.

Red fell off the stone and shoved them. Purple shoved back. Seconds later they were engaged in yet another slap fight that felt more epic than it actual was. To them it was the most amazing and epic thing ever. Something that would look like something from an action movie or an anime. However in reality it just looked like two big apples bopping each other and making squeaky noises whenever they got bopped. Then, through no fault of their own at all, one got shoved a little too hard into the stone, knocking it out of place. Instantly the glow was gone and whatever magic is seemed to hold faded.

They freaked out and quickly put it back in place, very distressed to see that it wasn’t glowing anymore. “… We didn’t do this.” Said Red. “If anyone asks us, we don’t know anything about it.”

Purple nodded in agreement. “Yep. But what are you talking about? What stone? What thing? We didn’t come to the farm to see what was going on with the farmer. No. We went to Cindersap forest to look for holly.”

“Exactly.” Red and Purple quickly ran back to the community center. They picked a bunch of wild holly on the way back to cover their trail and make sure that no one suspected them. Besides, whatever they did surely didn’t mess things up that badly right? Right?


	31. Night adventures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://shinigami-cat.tumblr.com/post/176483502659/so-these-are-a-few-sketches-of-my-farmer
> 
> There's the link. Enjoy the monster/demon concept art stuff.
> 
> Kudos and comment of you are so able to. Enjoy.

Seeing was a strange thing, especially when you essentially blind for several days and had no proper memory of actually being able to see. But Apollyon was slowly adapting. One of his eyes was slowly starting to focus on the world around him and he could kind of hear things again. Everything sounded muffled and the world looked clouded, but thing were getting better. 

His mind was slowly starting to become more developed and he was remembering things beyond the boundaries of the farm, like the woods, the mines, and the beach. The beach… He remembered it raining and seeing Sebastian there. It made him feel happy, but it wasn’t raining now. Sebastian wouldn’t be there. That made him sad.

He sat by the silo and watched the woman and the man stand by the house. The woman, she was his… his mother. Yes. That sounded right. The man with her was her husband. Not his father. Step-father. He and him did not get along. He did not approve of him. Apollyon didn’t approve of him either. But his mother liked him so he wasn’t going to say anything about it.

Apollyon let out a small sigh. It whistled through the teeth on his chest. The jaws on his chest hardly opened up anymore. The smaller teeth at the top and bottom had already fused together making it impossible to actually open it fully anymore. It was strange and kind of worrying, but Apollyon didn’t feel the need to eat anything anyway. 

He dug his nails into the frozen ground and started to scratch around while glancing over at his parents. He didn’t fully understand his condition at the moment but he was sure that at least his mother was here to take care of him. He picked up a handful of snow and dirt, smooshing it up in his hand. 

He wanted Sebastian. Where was he? Why wasn’t he here? Did he not want to see him anymore? What did he do? He hadn’t tried to grab him since his mother told him that was a bad thing to do. He must have really offended him somehow. That made him sad. He needed to do something, but what? What did Sebastian like? He liked… Fish… And big orange things… And purple rocks. He could catch some fish. He could find purple rocks. He could do that.

He wandered over to one of the chests out the front of the house and opened it. He had a feeling he had purple rocks in here. Clay, rocks, wood, hard wood, drift wood, quartz, copper ore, iron ore, gold ore, iridium ore, and geodes. Apollyon huffed in annoyance and started picking the geodes, crushing them in his hands. There had to be a purple one in here somewhere.

Smooth green stone. Damn it. Rock. Damn it. Spiky yellow crystal. Damn it. Blobby yellow thing. Damn it. Rock that looks like poop. Damn it. Orange thing. Damn it. Smooth grey rock. Damn it.

 

“… What are you doing love?” Asked Elizabeth. “Why are you crushing geodes?”

Apollyon grunted and continued crushing geodes. He wasn’t too sure what the purple rock was called but damn it he knew he would know it when he saw it. He would find it and make Sebastian happy again. He would come over and talk to him and they would go to the beach and Apollyon would catch him lots of fish and make him smile some more. He wanted to make him smile. Suddenly he felt something bump the side of his head and then some part of his head fell off. It was strange but at least he felt a little lighter.

“Colt!” Snapped Elizabeth. “Really? Don’t do that. His body will shed his unnecessary body parts in its own time. Put that stick down.”

“Relax, that eye was gonna fall off anyway. I was just giving it a little nudge. Besides, his demon flesh rots away to nothing in a matter of seconds so it’s no big deal.”

“It’s still not nice to poke out Apollyon’s vestigial eyes.” She moved next to Apollyon and gently hugged him. “Hmm, I think his jaw is starting to grow back. I can kind of see one under the skin here…” She touched an area of skin stretched taught and smooth, just where his neck met his head. “Hopefully you’ll have a mouth soon. And you can talk again. Grunting and groaning can only get you so far baby bean.”

Apollyon felt the same way. Talking was nice. He wanted to talk with Sebastian again. He wanted to make him happy and smile and just… He still wanted to smooch him and still had no idea what smooching was.

Colt sighed. “Well, it’s starting to get dark. Come inside Liz, time for dinner.”

“Okay, should we leave some food out for Apollyon?”

Colt scoffed. “Liz, he still doesn’t have a mouth and his intestines are still only in the lower half of his body. He doesn’t even have a proper ribcage yet. He’ll be fine.”

She sighed a little and gently patted Apollyon’s head. “Okay… When you have a mouth we’ll see if you can start eating. Have a good evening. Be good.”

The two of them went inside and Apollyon continued to crush geodes. It took another ten but Apollyon managed to find one. Bright purple and shiny. Amethyst. That’s what it was called. He grabbed hold of it and rubbed some snow into it to get the dirt off it and to make it shiny. Sebastian would appreciate this. Now to actually take it to him.

He thought about this for a while. Apollyon didn’t really remember where he lived. It was in the mountains? Yes. Yes it was. It was in a house up in the mountains. Close to that place where all that lovely warm water was. A pleased sound rumbled in his chest. He wandered over to the stone wall near the back of his property. This path seemed familiar. Yes. Sebastian was this way. He remembered that much.

***

Sebastian felt guilty for not seeing how Apollyon was going. He just really needed to finish his work. He had a deadline and tonight he finished it. Tomorrow he’d find a Junimo and get them to take him to the farm. Those things seemed to try and coax him into following them to the farm whenever he left his house anyway. 

He checked the time, not surprised to see it was about nine at night. He grabbed his cigarettes and headed out. He deserved this, though his lungs might disagree. Maybe he’d take Robin’s advice and try to quit? Maybe he could talk to Harvey and talk about his options? Now he had a new year’s resolution.

He stood by the garage and lit up, sucking in that sweet nicotine. There was a light snow fall happening that made the night all the more interesting. Winter was Sebastian’s favourite time of the year after all.

The large hooting of an owl made him jump a little. Those things were disturbingly loud, especially in the dead of winter. And as he looked up he almost got a face full of snow. He managed to jump back in time to watch a huge sheet of snow fall down.

“The fuck?” He took a few steps away from the house and almost had a heart attack when he saw Apollyon perched up on top of the roof. “Fucking Yoba! The fuck are you doing here?! Get down here!” 

Apollyon made a happy sound and gracefully jumped off the roof and landed in the snow near him. He made a pleased sound and handed Sebastian a lump of amethyst.

“… How the hell did you get here? Didn’t the Wizard say you couldn’t leave the farm because magic or something?” He turned the amethyst in his hands and sighed. “You really can’t be here. What if someone sees you? I’m not freaking out because I know who you are, but no one is going to recognise you like this…”

Apollyon tilted his head slowly and then sat down. He made a small sad sound and started scratching at the snow. He looked like a kicked demon puppy. He made several more sad sounds, and Sebastian could swear that one of Apollyon’s eyes was actually looking at him.

“… You need to go home Apollyon. Okay?” He hoped that Apollyon would understand him and get home safely. Apollyon made another sad sound. He slowly got up and started walking, right into town. “Fuck! Not that way! Not that way!”

Either Apollyon didn’t hear him or he was just straight up ignoring him because he just kept going. It was at times like this where Sebastian wished he wasn’t a smoker. Trying to keep up with something that had such long legs was killing him. He hated this so much. What would happen if someone saw him? Lots of screaming and depending on who saw him, possible heart attacks.

By the time Sebastian caught up with Apollyon he was down by Alex’s house. Apollyon was poking around the empty flowerbeds and eyeing the trashcan. Sebastian leaned against the house and started to hack up a lung. He needed to quit smoking, like yesterday.

“H-hey…” He wheezed. “You… you need to go home… Mr Mullner is gonna have a heart attack if he sees you.”

Apollyon ignored him and started to rummage through the trashcan. He quickly found that there was nothing in there that he wanted and wandered off again. This time he seemed extremely interested in Dusty’s fenced off area. If anything was going to alert everyone to Apollyon it was going to be Alex’s old, loud mutt. 

Sebastian grabbed a large stick and quickly ran over to him. “Don’t wake Dusty. Don’t wake Dusty. Please for the love of Yoba don’t wake Dusty.”

Unfortunately for him Dusty did indeed wake up. He took one look at Apollyon and let out a startled yelp. He was old, probably half blind too but there was no way that he was going to mistake Apollyon for a human in his state. Undeterred by Dusty’s rejection, Apollyon reached into the pen and let the old dog sniff his hand. It took Dusty a few moments, but he seemed to relax and somehow accept that Apollyon wasn’t a threat. Maybe he smelt like a human? Sebastian doubted that. He was just glad that Dusty wasn’t freaking out.

“Come on Apollyon, we need to get going, okay? Let’s get you back to the farm.” He lightly tugged on Apollyon’s arm. “Leave the dog alone. We need to get out of here before someone sees you.” He kept glancing over at the saloon and hoped that no one was going to walk out. “Come on Apollyon. Let’s go. Leave Dusty alone.”

Dusty looked up at them and started barking. This caused Sebastian to panic but Apollyon just looked on with fascination. Suddenly the sound of cracking bones and ripping skin filled the air and Apollyon barked back at Dusty. Sebastian almost fell over in shock. Some weird little flappy lower jaw popped into existence where Apollyon’s mouth would be.

“Shut up!” He saw the light flick on at Alex’s house. Depending on who Apollyon and Dusty had woken up with their barking they could have anywhere between a few seconds to about five minutes. “Shit… Seriously Apollyon, you need to hide now. Please. I need you to do this for me. Please? I’m begging here.”

Apollyon looked down at Sebastian with what he could only assume was his good eye and begrudgingly headed off to hide behind Alex’s house. Once he had slipped out of view George wheeled himself out, looking as grouchy as ever.

“What are you doing out here? Messing around with Dusty and making him bark at this time of night?” He asked. “People are trying to sleep you young hooligan.”

Hooligan? He hadn’t heard that one in a long time. “Sorry Mr Mullner. There um… I was just…”

“Drunk too I see.” Scoffed George. “It isn’t bad enough that you and your friends are always causing trouble around town, and now you’re getting drunk and waking up old people for no good reason? Mayor Lewis is going to hear about this, and so will your mother!”

That’s just what Sebastian needed. More community service and his mum getting mad at him. “I’m not drunk…”

Apollyon peeked out around the side of the house. He didn’t seem to be too happy that George was yelling at Sebastian. Sebastian was trying to subtly gesture to him that he needed to stay where he was, but had no idea if Apollyon knew what he was trying to convey. Apollyon took a few steps closer and bumped into the trashcan, making it clatter.

“Damn raccoons.” Muttered George. “Always getting into the trash.”

“Yes. Exactly that.” Said Sebastian. He could work with this. “I was walking out of the saloon and saw a raccoon trying to get into Dusty’s pen. I scared him off but Dusty woke up and barked at it. I was just chasing off the raccoon when you came out. Hence why I have a stick in my hands.”

“Oh… Well get to it. Scare it off and I’ll forget all about this.”

“Thanks Mr Mullner.” Sebastian watched George go back inside and he let out a sigh of relief. That was too close. Way too close. He walked over to Apollyon and held his hand. “Come on. Stop messing around. Time to go home.” It was more like he had a pet monster than a monster boyfriend at this rate.

Apollyon stared down at him, made a strange wheezing sound, and swiftly picked him up, holding him bridal style in his claws. While this was very undignified it was slightly better than getting held up to a chest made of teeth. He started walking, but not back to the farm, Apollyon was walking towards the community centre.

“Hey, wrong way. Are you listening to me?” Sebastian lightly hit Apollyon’s arm with the stick, but he seemed to just ignore it. Considering how strong Apollyon was and how sharp his claws were, Sebastian had no choice but to just let Apollyon do what he was doing until he put him down.

He took Sebastian into the community centre and put him down next to a hut. A few Junimos looked out and up at the two of them in surprise. They obviously didn’t expect to have visitors at this time of night. A rather withered looking white Junimo with a twig walking stick waddled over to Sebastian and started squeaking at him.

“… I don’t speak Junimo.” Said Sebastian.

White made a deflating sound and waddled over to Apollyon and started poking him with their twig while squeaking. Apollyon huffed and ignored it. As that was going on Sebastian got up and looked around the old building. It was still a piece of shit as it had been for a few years, but it didn’t look as bad as it could have.

He wandered down the hallways and looked into different rooms. Every now and then he would see a Junimo running across the floor or hiding up in the rafters. They really had taken over the whole building. It was kind of unsettling really.

***

Blue peeked out from the rafters in the crafts room. They were a little spooked that Sebastian was walking around in this building. This was there building. Not his. Well, it technically was his because he was a human and it was a human building, but it was still rundown so it was there building for now. Not his.

“Why is he here?” Whined Blue.

Orange shrugged. “Hero brought them here for some reason. White is talking to the Hero farmer now. He’s not listening.” They walked over to Blue and looked down at Sebastian. “… So this is them. The Hero’s helper? What did Red say they were?”

“I think he said he’s their mate? Partner? Something along those lines.” Blue looked down at Sebastian again before quickly looking away. “I don’t really think I like him being here…”

“Well neither do I but what can you do?” Orange looked down at him. “… He um… Yeah, he looks weird. Not a magic user. No magic in that one at all… Red said opposites attract, so I guess this is a thing?” Orange pulled a bit of wood off the beam they were standing on and held it over the edge. “Bet you one cool rock I can drop it on his head.”

“… You’re on.”

Orange dropped the bit of wood, pouting when the wood landed on his shoulder instead of his head. “Poopy. Well it still landed on him…”

Blue giggled. “Yeah well, you failed. I want a cool rock.”

“What are you two doing?” The two Junimos jumped as Green marched over to them. “You have to leave the Hero’s mate alone! They have suffered enough. They saw the Hero get all chopped up and then come back. Everyone was screaming when that happened! Now be good and leave him alone. The Hero might get mad at us if you mess with him!”

The two Junimos muttered amongst themselves and pouted. “So why is the Hero anyway? Why is his mate here?” Asked Orange.

“White is trying to figure that out now.” Said Green calmly. “He’s out by our hut… I guess they are here because it’s late and cold outside or something? Hey, which room is the best room in here do you think?”

“Possibly this one.” Suggested Orange. “Why?”

“We should get this room looking all nice and stuff for them.” Said Green. “They might be spending the night here. If that’s the case we need to make this place look all nice and stuff. We need cushions and blankets and soft stuff. That’s the stuff humans sleep on, right?”

“I can do that!” Said Orange. They quickly got up and ran past Green. “I’ll get Red to help me too! We’ll fix the place up! Make it all good!”

Blue pouted and crossed their arms. “This is dumb… I don’t like non magic people being in our place…”

Green shrugged. “Hey, what can you do? Things just happen… By the way, how did the Hero farmer get here in the first place? I thought that the Wizard put up a magic fence to stop him leaving the farm?”

Blue shrugged. “Do I look like I know this stuff?”

***

Sebastian quickly finished looking around the community center. It all looked pretty much the same no matter what room he went into; dilapidated. The only really interesting thing in each room was a strange golden scroll. Unfortunately they were all written in a strange language that he couldn’t decipher. 

He made his way back to Apollyon, amused to see that the old white Junimo was still waving around their twig trying to get his attention. Apollyon was still ignoring them in favour of scratching the worn wooden ground. However when he saw Sebastian his interests immediately started to center around him.

Sebastian smiled a little at him. “You ready to go home yet Apollyon?”

“S-Sebastian…” Crooned Apollyon softly. 

The tone of their voice made Sebastian’s skin crawl a little, but he was glad they could kind of talk now. Still didn’t mean they were smart enough to make intelligent sentences. “Yep that’s me. Home now?”

Green walked up to Apollyon and started waving around, making all kinds of squeaks and arm gestures. Surprisingly Apollyon seemed to take notice of Green and listened to what they said. When it was done squeaking Sebastian once again found himself getting picked up by Apollyon and carried down to some room. Surprisingly, despite being a room he had been in previously it was suddenly filled with pillows and blankets. He had very mixed feelings about this.

Green just looked extremely proud of themselves and even did some grand sweeping bow out of the way. That only lasted for a few seconds before the started trying to push Apollyon towards the set up. They started squeaking impatiently at him.

Apollyon grunted and put Sebastian down, lying next to him. “… Sebastian?”

Sebastian sat next to him. “Yeah?”

He reached out and quickly wrapped his arms around Sebastian’s middle, pulling him close. Apollyon made a soft purring noise as he lightly ran his claws over the relatively thick fabric of Sebastian’s hoodie. 

It seemed like Apollyon wanted to keep him with him like this for some reason. Was he some toy to Apollyon now? No. He doubted that. He seemed to have some kind of obsession to protect him. Sebastian had no way of really knowing for sure, but he kind of guessed that since his last act as a human seemed to be to protect him, maybe it carried over when he came back like this? It was a nice thought, but he wasn’t too sure.

He had no idea how he was going to get Apollyon back to the farm, but he was getting pretty tired himself. Smoking and running after a demon boyfriend in the middle of the night would wear anyone out. Sebastian would figure this out in the morning.


	32. Clothes for the demon boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stupid title because I couldn't think of anything else. Also, guess who is super excited for the multiplayer update souly because it has more single player content and has no friend? This nerd right here. Still gonna craft me a wedding ring just because I can. Anyway, kudos and comment if you can and enjoy :D

The next day Sebastian woke up first. This wasn’t that surprising considering that a purple Junimo was poking his face with a stick. He batted it away and slowly sat up. Purple did not seem to appreciate this and gave Sebastian one last poke before running away.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes a little before glancing down at Apollyon. Surprisingly he no longer looked like some kind of Lovecraft nightmare fuel, but he still wasn’t all the way back to normal yet. He’d shrunk down again to what could be considered his normal human height, greyish skin completely covered his body hiding away any and all visible bones and organs, his face now looked a lot more human but still had more eyes than necessary and didn’t actually seem to have a nose. He did however have a lot of thick black hair on his head.

Sebastian smiled and brushed some of the hair out of his face. Apollyon looked so peaceful right now. Maybe his mind will finally be healed enough for him to understand what he was saying fully and wouldn’t randomly run off? That would be nice. Now the big question was how on earth was Sebastian get Apollyon back to the farm without people seeing him?

As he wondered this Apollyon woke up and wrapped his arms around him. He still had gnarly looking claws that were more akin to talons protruding from each finger. “Sebastian?”

He hummed a little, gently placing his hand on Apollyon’s arm. “Yeah, I’m here. Just trying to figure out how to get you home.”

Apollyon sighed a little and slowly tightened his grip on him. “… Sorry… Scared you.”

Sebastian was impressed that he had the ability to make a cohesive sentence. “It’s okay. We just need to get you home before anyone sees you and… You’re completely naked…” In all due respect, Sebastian should have noticed this sooner. However when he initially looked over his body Sebastian didn’t really think that checking to see if Apollyon’s reproductive anatomy was back to normal was a top priority.

Apollyon didn’t seem to have too much shame at the realization of his nakedness and instead just nuzzled Sebastian while making soft animal sounds. “Safe now… Safe.”

“Yeah, we’re safe in here I guess…” He looked around and saw that weird green Junimo that seemed to appear all the time. “Hey, you. Come over here.”

Green paused and pointed to themselves. “Squee?”

“Yes you. Come here.” He felt ridiculous talking to this thing, but it wasn’t like he had much of a choice.

Green waddled over to Sebastian and looked up at him, placing their hands on their hips. “Brrrrrrrrrriiii?”

“I have no idea what you are saying. Look, just go get Apollyon’s parents at the farm. You know his parents? The ones on his farm?”

Green stared at him. “Squee?”

“… Yoba, you have no idea what I’m saying do you?” He sighed. “Alright, Go to the farm. Faaaaaaarm. The place where Apollyon grows things. Get his family. Fa-ma-leee. Make sure they bring clothes. Cl-oh-ths.” He tugged at his hoodie for emphasis. “Do you understand me? Cl-oh-ths.”

Green looked offended and started to jump around and wave their arms at him. “Squee! Squee! Squee! Brrrrrrrrriiii! Pip! Pip! Squee! Brrriiii!” They stamped their foot a few times and glared at him.

“… Sorry?”

Green huffed and stormed off making more grumpy squeaking sounds. It was impossible for Sebastian to know if Green was actually going to do what he asked it or if he just pissed it off. He probably just pissed it off knowing his luck.

“Sebastian?”

“Yeah?”

“… I love you.”

“I love you too.” Apollyon made a pleased sound and pressed his lips against Sebastian’s cheek. Sebastian chuckled a little and kissed Apollyon. “Did you forget how to kiss or something?”

“… Smooch. I want to smooch.”

“That’s what kissing is you big dummy.” Sebastian smiled and ran his fingers through Apollyon’s hair. It looked a little greasy, but it was actually very soft and silky. It made him happy to see Apollyon so content and calm.

Suddenly the door to the community center swung open with an almighty clatter. “Apollyong? Baby bean? Where are you?”

“We’re in here!” Called Sebastian.

Within seconds Elizabeth was in the crafts room and giving Apollyon a big hug. “Why did you run off? That was very, very bad! Someone could have seen you! Colt and I had no idea you were gone until Green came by and told us about you!”

Apollyon made a sad sound. “Sorry mum…”

She looked surprised to hear him talk, but that just made her smile even more. “That’s okay love. Now let’s put some clothes on you.” It was kind of amusing watching Elizabeth try and get Apollyon to wear pants. It was easier for her to a jacket on him, though he seemed to be confused by the zipper. “Thank you for looking after him Sebastian. I don’t know what I would have done if he just up and vanished. Poor baby is still just getting his mind together.”

Sebastian shrugged. “It’s no big deal… I was more worried that someone was going to see him. How are you going to get him back now?”

“Well, it’s the festival of ice today, so we just need to wait until about ten to get him home.” She smiled lovingly at Apollyon. “Are you hungry baby bean? We’ll go home and I’ll get you something nice to eat. We’ll bring something for the Junimos later to thank them for letting you stay here last night.”

Apollyon grunted a little and scratched at the ground a little. “Okay…”

Elizabeth smiled. “Good. Sebastian, you can go now if you like. I’d assume you need to make an appearance at the festival?”

Sebastian nodded. He didn’t really want to go. He just felt tired and kind of just wanted to hand around Apollyon and watch him become more human. Then again he could just imagine Demetrius or Robin chewing his ear out about skipping out. Heck, Sam and Abigail would do the same thing but probably just assume that he and Apollyon were fucking or something. “Yeah… I should go.”

Saying that made Apollyon look distressed. “Sebastian?”

“I’ll come by today after the festival. Promise.” Said Sebastian. He held Apollyon’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “You don’t have to worry. Okay?”

“… Okay.” He still seemed upset, but not nearly as distressed as he was moments ago.

Sebastian said his goodbyes to Elizabeth and Apollyon and headed out. It was close to the time when the festival would start so he just headed down to Cindersap forest. By the time he got there the festivities were well underway with people checking out ice sculptures and making snowmen. He hadn’t made one of those since he was in middle school.

As he reminisced about this Abigail almost knocked him over when she hugged him. “Sebby!”

“Ack!”

She giggled and poked his cheek. “Hey there mister grumpy gills. How are you today?”

“Tired, and now my back hurts.” Said Sebastian calmly. “What about you?”

“I’m good. I made a snow goon.” She gestured to her snow goon. “So is Apollyon going to turn up at some point?”

“… Don’t think so. He’s still sick.”

Sam sighed dramatically. “That sucks man. So seriously, how sick is he? It like, sounds like he’s at deaths door at this rate.”

Sebastian shrugged. “It’s whatever. He’s getting better so he should be good in a few days.”

“Hopefully he’ll be healthy enough to hang out with you on your birthday.” Said Abigail. “You two gotta have that birthday sex. The gift you give when you fuck up and forget to get your lover a present. Wear something skimpy and slap a bow on your head.”

Sam chuckled. “You can also turn that in to Winter star sex if the bow is candy cane striped and or you wear a Santa hat.”

“Fucking genius right there.” She slapped Sam on the back. 

Sebastian rolled his eyes. His friends were idiots at the best of times. “When and if we do screw around it has nothing to do with you guys so zip it. If you two are so interested in sex why don’t you two do it?”

Abby cringed at the thought. “No way. Sorry Sam, but not interested.”

“Same.” Said Sam. “Nothing personal Abs, but you’re not my type.”

The two of them continued to bicker up to the time when fishing competition started. Willy won again hands down. It really wasn’t that much of a competition considering how good he was at it. Pam and Elliot put up a good fight, but they just didn’t have what it took. They tried, so that’s all that counted right? Either way Sebastian would never end up doing something like that. Way too much pressure.

When the competition was over everyone started to head home so they could get warm inside. However, Abby seemed to have other plans. She started to head straight up towards Hellfire farm with Sam following behind her. This wasn’t going to end well.

“Where are you two going?”

“We’re going to see Apollyon, dah.” Said Abby like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Sick or not he’ll be happy to see friends, right?”

Sebastian really couldn’t think of a good reason as to why they shouldn’t head to Apollyon’s farm. He could only hope that Apollyon wasn’t outside doing weird demon things. He didn’t know how he could explain to them how or why Apollyon was a demon. Granted he looked less like a demon than he did yesterday, but still. Maybe he would hide if anyone came onto the farm? That would be good, but since he seemed to like coming out to say hi to him he was probably going to come over and hug him again. Yoba have mercy.

They made it onto the farm no problem and easily made it halfway across the property without any incident. That was good. That was very good. Maybe Apollyon was smart enough to stay hidden around other people now? Maybe? Please Yoba let that be the case.

When they got to the farm house, Abby happily knocked on the front door. Moments later Elizabeth opened the door. She was smiling brightly at them. “Hello there. Is there something I can do for you three?”

Abby smiled back at her. “Hi. I’m Abigail, that’s Sam and that’s Sebastian. We came over to see Apollyon since he’s all sick and junk.”

Elizabeth’s smile wavered a little as she glanced over at Sebastian, but she still had a warm and welcoming atmosphere about here. “Well it’s very lovely to meet you two. I’ve already met Sebastian on a number of occasions. Always a pleasure. You three look positively freezing. Come on inside.” She ushered the trio inside and started to boil some water. “I’m sorry but Apollyon is sleeping at the moment and I don’t think it would be polite to wake him. Would you like some tea? I only have orange and cinnamon or lemon and ginger.”

Sam flopped onto the couch. “Your choice Mrs Apollyon’s mum. We’re not too fussed.”

She giggled a little at that. “Right, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Elizabeth. Please either call me Elizabeth or Liz.”

“How about Lizzy?” Asked Abby.

Elizabeth paused for a moment, almost as if perplexed by the question. “No one has ever called me that before… Yes. That is acceptable.” She got some mugs out of the cupboard. “So Sam, Abigail, have you met my husband yet? His name is Colt. He might come off as a bit of an asshole, but he’s just a big kitten under all that grumpiness.” The trio shared a look that made her sigh. “So you have met him then?”

Sam nervously scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, he um… He’s an interesting guy… So why weren’t you two at the ice festival today?”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly have gone.” Said Elizabeth. “I had to take care of my poor baby bean. He hasn’t been himself lately and needs someone around until he’s back in the right state of mind… Though I would have loved to go. I haven’t been to the festival of ice in years. It would have been so nostalgic.”

“So you grew up here?” Asked Abby.

Elizabeth laughed a little and brought over her tea tray, placing it on the coffee table. “Why yes I did. Same with Apollyon. First few years of his life were on this farm… And while I had my reservations about him coming back here in the beginning, I’m glad he did. He seems to have really settled in and made place for himself here. I can’t imagine him living back in the city anymore.” She poured them some tea and took her own mug. “… I do wish he had a few more choices when it came to cups… I had to get Colt to buy a set of mugs just to enjoy some tea.”

Abby nodded a little and took one of the mugs. “… The tea’s nice.”

“Thank you. I brought it with me when I came over.” She glanced over at Sebastian. “By the way, Apollyon should be fine in a day or two. Once he’s back to normal Colt and I will head back home.”

Sebastian nodded a little. He hoped that was going to be the case. He needed to actually sit down with Apollyon and talk about what the hell happened. He could only get so far with trying to talk to someone with the mind of a small dog.

***

The Wizard was pissed. He hadn’t even set the barrier up for half a season and someone had gone and fucked it up. He suspected the Junimos. He stormed into the community center and glared at them. “Alright! Which one of you went and broke the barrier?!”

The Junimos looked at each other before quickly scattering. If one was in trouble they were damn well sure they were all going to get in trouble.

“Hey!” He yelled. “Get back here! You can’t run away from this! One of you did this and I plan to find out who it was!”

The Junimos escaped into the holes in the walls and the rafters, doing their best to stay hidden and out of sights. However they wouldn’t stop squeaking. Which kind of negated the whole hiding thing.

“I can still hear you! I am going to find out who it was damn it!”


	33. Winter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little side note about some of the more religious stuff in Stardew Valley. It kind of seems a little (to me at least and I'll be happy to be corrected), but they whole Yoba religion seems to be kind of Christian in nature just from looking when the Yoba symbol pops up and stuff. Maybe I'm just reading too into things, I don't know. So this was just a round about way to say I made up some Satan like character to rule over the Void by combining Lucifer and Beelzebub and came up with a thing called Belcifer and all I can think of now that I have finished this chapter is Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls... fml... Anyway, kudos and comment if you can and enjoy :D

Colt clicked his tongue in annoyance. He and Sebastian had been going over demon classes for about an hour but they weren’t really making much progress. Sure Sebastian understood that there was this class system thing going on but it was still difficult to understand.

“Look, it’s not that hard to understand.” Said Colt. “The demon hierarchy is in constant battle for power and therefore the title of Belcifer is a title like king or queen. Any demon can be Belcifer, but not all demons are Belcifer. All demons under Belcifer are like a normal monarchy. The only way it changes is if another demon comes in and kills the current Belcifer. Basically regicide is the only way to change the ruler of the Void.”

“I know who Belcifer is.” Muttered Sebastian. “I just didn’t realize that regicide was a thing… Belcifer is just like, meant to be Yoba’s opposite.”

“Well yeah, all demons are the opposite to Yoba.” Said Colt coldly, like Sebastian was just wasting his time. “Now, there are three circles of influence under Belcifer. The first circle would be like nobility and they are the ones most likely to become Belcifer. The second circle would be the ones that can worm their way into the first circle but are generally the ones that kick up the most shit for humans and are the ones usually summoned here. The third circle are practically cattle. A legion of faceless, shapeless cannon fodder.” 

“… And Apollyon is?”

“He’s cannon fodder. Nothing more.” 

Elizabeth sighed and brought them both some tea. “Now Colt, don’t be mean. Apollyon might have been a lower class of demon, but that doesn’t matter. He could have been Belcifer if he put his mind to it.”

Colt rolled his eyes and drank some tea. “Yeah, well I highly doubt that love. Remember, he was pretty much a slug in the Void.”

“Yeah, but how was he able to look like how he did?” Asked Sebastian. “I know people have explained it as like his body is trying to be human again but like, he wasn’t really human to begin with and I just… I’m confused…”

Elizabeth was sympathetic to Sebastian’s confusion. “It’s okay dear. It’s kind of like um… Oh it’s hard to explain… Apollyon has just been the way he is for so long I’ve just accepted that this is who he is. I’m just glad he is alright.”

“Third circle demons are weak but extremely malleable. Like a polymorph.” Said Colt. “He just ended up bonding to the human body easier than others. Most demons don’t possess someone for that long. As far as we know he’s the only one of his kind.” He took a cigarette out of his pocket and went to light it.

“Colt, outside.” Said Elizabeth in a warning tone.

He grunted but relented and walked outside. With him gone Sebastian relaxed a little and leaned back on the couch. He wanted to learn more about Apollyon’s demon side. He didn’t expect to get a full lesson in demonology. And on his birthday too. Then again this was probably the most free time he had at the moment at least in the morning.

Elizabeth smiled a little and sat next to him. “I know it’s a little hard, but thank you for trying to learn. I know Apollyon will appreciate it. Anyone would appreciate it… So have you gotten anything for your birthday yet?”

“… How did you know it was my birthday?” Asked Sebastian. He hadn’t told her, he hadn’t told anyone. He just showed up on their doorstep around midmorning. He was tired as fuck but he needed to sneak out of the house early if he was to avoid any and all of the family social interactions he was going to have to go through if he ran into his family.

“Oh, your aura is especially bright and kind of white today. Giving off an ethereal glow of renewal. It’s either your birthday of the month of because the planets Mars and Venus are now parallel to each other and centering on your rebirth cycle.” 

“… What?”

“Just joking. It’s on the calendar.” He pointed to the calendar on the wall. “When I was younger my father had one just like it. I always thought it was kind of odd to have everyone’s birthday written on it, but hey, that’s small towns for you.”

“… Right.” He sipped his tea.

She giggled a little. “Ah, I’m sorry dear, you probably wanted to spend it with Apollyon doing the kinds of things couples do… Though frankly dear if you were hoping to have sex with him you would have needed to bring your own lube and condoms. I accidentally knocked over his bedside table and he was just keeping his socks in there.”

Sebastian nearly choked on his tea and went bright red. Apart from the occasional crude joke or innuendo from Sam or Abigail, Sebastian was not used to people being so open about sex stuff. Especially when it was the parent of the person he was currently dating.

Elizabeth patted his back and laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry Sebastian I just couldn’t help it. I remember what it was like to be young and enamored with my first love. The first time with them is always just… It’s a special kind of magic”

“… He isn’t my first love though?” He was silently preying that Yoba would strike him down with a bolt of lightning to end his suffering. He didn’t want to hear about Elizabeth’s first time.

“Honey, as far as I’m concerned any time you have sex with a new person you’re practically a virgin. Besides, Yoba doesn’t care if you screw around. Don’t be fooled by mistranslations. The passage about not laying your seed in soil used till nothing is left is referring to how it’s pointless to try and have a baby with an infertile woman. If anything it’s encouraging polygamy or surrogates more than anything.”

Why was Yoba not striking him down? What did Sebastian do to deserve this? Could a storm just sweep through and pleat him with hail? Right in the forehead would do nicely. Death could come nice and swiftly or slowly. He wasn’t fussed. Just as long as he no longer had to listen to this.

The lightning strike came in the form of the Wizard suddenly walking in. “Hello Elizabeth. Sebastian.”

She smiled at him. “Ras, so good to see you again. What can I do for you?”

The Wizard sighed a little and pulled up a chair. “Okay, so I just came from having a talk with the ICGMAC. Long story short those idiots that came here in the first place got a slap on the wrist and are no longer allowed in Pelican Town. Also, since the Junimos are willingly interacting with Apollyon the council has ruled that Apollyon is a necessary embodiment of natural chaos and his destruction would do more harm than good. He’s practically been elevated to the status of pagan god.”

Elizabeth gasped in shock. “Really? That’s amazing! Well now he won’t have to worry about people trying to kill him now. Right?”

“Right.”

Sebastian stayed quiet through this whole exchange. He didn’t really understand what the hell was going on. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact the Belcifer was a title and not the name of the actual demon king of the Void. He didn’t really want to understand the reason why a bunch of magic people would go from calling Apollyon a demon to then call him a pagan god. He wondered how Apollyon would take his new status?

The Wizard tapped Sebastian’s shoulder. “Hey, I have something for you.” He handed Sebastian something heavy wrapped in tissue paper. “Happy birthday. Apollyon wanted you to have this.”

“…” Sebastian unwrapped the gift and was surprised to see that staring back at him was an obsidian frog. He loved frogs and he loved obsidian. He had to have gotten this ready for him before Winter started. “When did he?”

“Last day of fall.” Said the Wizard. He wanted you to have it and asked me to give it to you in case something terrible happened to him. Like this.”

Sebastian nodded a little and kept looking at the obsidian frog. He couldn’t believe that Apollyon would organize something like this so far in advanced. But if that was the case why didn’t Apollyon tell him he was going to get attacked? He didn’t understand that. Didn’t he trust him or something?

A deep groan could be heard coming from the bedroom. Moment later the door opened up and Apollyon walked out. His skin was pale and grey and he his nails were more like talons rather than actual nails, but apart from that he looked human. “… What day is it?”

Elizabeth grinned and hugged him. “Welcome back baby bean. You feeling okay?”

“I have a headache.” He muttered. “What day is it?”

“The tenth of winter baby bean.”

“… Sebastian’s birthday. I need to go see him.”

“I’m right here.” Said Sebastian calmly.

Apollyon quickly moved over to him and hugged him, resting his head against Sebastian’s shoulder. He sighed contently. “Happy birthday Seb.”

Sebastian hugged back. “Thanks… Are you okay?”

“I have a headache.” Mumbled Apollyon. “You didn’t get hurt did you?”

“No I’m fine… Thank you.”

Apollyon smiled a little. “Don’t thank me. I’m just glad you’re still alive and safe.”

Elizabeth giggled a little and started to push the Wizard outside. “Well baby bean, we’ll leave you two alone for tonight. Hopefully you’ll get a bit more pink in your skin over the next few days.” Apollyon gave her a thumb’s up as they left, leaving him and Sebastian alone.

They were quiet for a few moments before Apollyon spoke up. “So what do you want to do for your birthday?”

“… Seriously? Apollyon you’ve got a headache, look like you just died, and yesterday you looked like a monster from a horror movie.” Said Sebastian. “We can just hang out here for a while.”

“… Okay.” Apollyon laid down on the couch with his head resting against Sebastian’s lap. His hair had grown out a lot and he no longer sported his usual half buzz cut. Now it was longer and looked a little more like Elliot’s hair. Maybe now he would have to tie it back? He’d look good with a high pony tail.

Sebastian ran his fingers through Apollyon’s hair. It was soft and silky. It reminded him a little of animal fur. He liked it. “… If you’re up for it Sam and Abigail are gonna come over to my place and we’re going to watch movies… Do you want to come over? You don’t have to, you’re still kind of out of it.”

“I’ll go. I’m not that out of it.” He yawned a little. “I’m just tired… Did you get my present?”

“Yep.” He held the frog in front of Apollyon’s face. “I love it. Thanks.”

“I’m glad. I didn’t know if you were going to get it, but I’m glad you did.” He reached over and held Sebastian’s hand. “… I’m sorry. I didn’t intend for you to ever see me like that. I just… Life has a way of getting the best of you sometimes.”

“Yeah…” Sebastian wanted to talk to him about what the hell happened more, but he didn’t feel like now was the right time. He’d wait a little bit. Just until Apollyon didn’t have a headache. It would give him time to think about what he wanted to say to him and how to say it without sounding too upset or accusatory. 

***

Apollyon was happy, tired but happy. He was relatively back to normal now and well, he knew and remembered all the stupid things he did when he was in his more demonic form. He couldn’t believe how tolerant Sebastian was during the whole ordeal.

He was going to make it up to him and be the best boyfriend he could possibly be. Especially because it was his birthday. So when night fell he made his way over to Sebastian’s house, much to the chagrin of Elizabeth. She wanted him to stay home for just a little longer, but Apollyon had insisted so she let him go. But only after he filed his talons down to something more human looking.

So he found himself sitting on the floor in Sebastian’s room by his bed while Abigail brushed his hair, pulling it back into a pony tail. “Seriously, how quickly does your hair grow? Damn stuff grows faster than like, a guy’s beard… or pit hair. That shit’s annoying.”

Apollyon chuckled a little and rubbed his eyes. He still had a bit of a headache but he was making the best of it. “That’s true. But it’s kind of whatever. I think I might leave my hair like this. Let it grow out and junk.”

“Sexy.”

“Damn right it is.”

She looked over at Sebastian and grinned, “Hey do you think Apollyon’s sexier with his hair long or like how it was before?”

Sebastian looked up from his laptop. “He looks good no matter how he has his hair Abby.”

She rolled her eyes and finished fixing up his hair. “You’d think he look sexy no matter what he did with his hair or what he looked like, wouldn’t you? Sam, what do you think?”

Sam shrugged. “Each to their own. I don’t like Apollyon that way so I don’t care what his hair looks like. But either way he looks fine.”

Apollyon smiled and finger gunned at him. “Thanks dude. Glad you have my back. You picked a movie yet Sebastian?”

“Still looking for one.” Said Sebastian. “Can’t decide if I feel like comedy sci-fi or action sci-fi.”

“British comedy sci-fi or American comedy sci-fi?” Asked Sam.

“British.”

Abby groaned. “If I have to hear fucking dolphins singing so long and thanks for all the fish again I will shove the nearest sharp object up your ass.”

As Sam and Apollyon laughed Sebastian fake pouted at her. “But it’s my birthday. I get to decide what we watch today.”

“Don’t care.” Said Abby. “No singing dolphins, or people waving around towels, or sighing doors, or manic depressed robots… Or 42!”

“But that’s the answer to the question!” Said Apollyon in shock. “The answer to life, the universe and everything!”

She looked down at him in disgust. “Gross, you two are made for each other.”

Apollyon laughed a little and looked over at Sebastian. He was back to looking at his laptop, but Apollyon could see him smiling ever so slightly. Sure, he didn’t look like he was smiling but you could tell if you knew him. His lips curled up ever so slightly at the corners. Sure Sebastian wasn’t overly expressive which made many people think he was a cold person, but he was very expressive if you actually took the time to get to know him. Every little facial expression no matter how minute made Apollyon’s heart melt.

“If it means I get to be with Sebastian I don’t mind being gross.”

Sebastian blushed a little when Apollyon aid that, Sam laughed at the cheesiness of it all, and Abby gagged. “Ergh, the sickeningly sweet cheesiness of your affection is making me wanna puke. I’d expect this kind of puppy love from like Sam, or Elliot, or Penny. Not you.”

“What can I say? I am a man of many talents. And once I learn how to play the guitar and read music I will compose the cheesiest, most sickeningly sweet love song and play it to Sebastian during the next Dance of the Moonlight Jellies.”

Sebastian looked over at Apollyon with a deadpan expression. “Do that and I will break up with you.”

Apollyon gasped a little and clutched his chest. “My boyfriend is so mean to me. Can you believe it?” Sam and Abby looked at Apollyon like he was an idiot. “… Okay fuck you guys. You’re mean too.”

After that the group settled down to watch; The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, much to Abby’s dismay. Apollyon just laughed and enjoyed the movie. He had somehow managed to get Sebastian on his lap around halfway through the movie. It felt good to hold him in his arms like this. Not like before when he was just able to grab him in one hand. While that was kind of fun it was also kind of creepy in a way. Later on they would need to have a bit of a talk about what had happened.

He quickly lost interest in the movie in favour of pressing his forehead against Sebastian’s back while thinking about what to say or what to do. Sebastian would probably have a lot of questions for him. Stuff like, what happened to him when he died? Did he know that would happen? Why didn’t he tell him about Gadreel? He didn’t really know what he was going to say. Well he had a little bit of an idea, but didn’t really know if he could come up with anything satisfying. He wanted Sebastian to have answers. Good answers.

“Aw, I think Apollyon’s all sleepy.” Cooed Abigail.

Apollyon opened an eye and looked at her. “Hmm?”

Sam chuckled. “And you woke him. You tired man?”

“A little.” Mumbled Apollyon. “Still sick. Sebastian comfy to use as a pillow.” To emphasize this he cuddled him more. He could hear Sebastian’s heart speed up a little when he did that. It made him smile a little.

Abigail chuckled a little. “Well, I guess we should head off then. Happy birthday Sebby.”

“Yeah, happy birthday Sebastian.” Said Sam. “We’ll see you tomorrow for band practice. Okay?”

“See you guys later.” Said Sebastian. Apollyon could hear the two leave the basement. Suddenly Sebastian grabbed hold of Apollyon’s arms and threw his weight to the side, making them both fall sideways onto the bed. Apollyon squeaked in surprise but quickly snuggled into him again. “… Are you doing okay back there?”

“Yeah.” Muttered Apollyon. “Just thinking about stuff and things… Did you have a good birthday?”

Sebastian wriggled around in his arms until he had turned around so he was facing him. “It was good. I got to spend most of it with you.”

“Yeah, and I wasn’t some stupid monster thing.”

“You weren’t stupid.”

“Bastian…”

“… Okay, you were pretty fucking stupid.” Admitted Sebastian. “But to be fair your brain was still trying to form properly… Why did you come to my house the other day anyway?”

Apollyon smiled sheepishly. “Well, you hadn’t come by in a few days and I got sad. For some reason I thought you were mad at me and I wanted to find you and give you something. It was only by chance it happened to be late at night.”

“And the reason you tried to pat Dusty?”

“I was going to go down to the beach to get you a fish because you were still upset at me… Then Dusty distracted me and I wanted to play with him, but I realized he was probably a bit too old…” He nervously bit his bottom lip. “And I took you to the community center because I realized it was late and people were sleeping. Therefore you needed to sleep… It made sense to me at the time.”

Sebastian nodded a little, contemplating what he said carefully. “Well, then I guess it wasn’t such a stupid thing after all… Were you trying to get me a fish because I like sashimi?”

“… Maybe.”

He chuckled a little and kissed Apollyon’s cheek. “You’re an idiot. You know that right?”

Apollyon pouted a little and poked his face. “I thought you said I was being logical and smart and stuff.”

“That was before I realized you were going to give me a live fish and expect me to eat it.”

“It would have air-drowned by the time I brought it to you.” Argued Apollyon. He brushed Sebastian’s fringe out of his face, pleased to see he was smiling at him. When Sebastian smiled at him like that, even for a moment, all his worries and all his pains and regrets that were running through his mind seemed so insignificant. With Sebastian here with him he couldn’t help but just forget. 

Apollyon leaned forward and kissed him. Much to his delight Sebastian enthusiastically reciprocated. It felt good to touch and to be touched by someone he loved so much. Sebastian moved to deepen the kiss, but he accidentally kneed Apollyon hard in the dick.

“Ack!”

“Shit! Sorry!”

Apollyon curled up in the fetal position on the bed and gave a shaky thumb’s up. “It’s okay. At least I know my pain nerves have decided to connect again… Ow…”

“… Want some ice?”

“Yes please…”


	34. Nicotine gum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we must say farewell to Elizabeth and Colt. I know one of you shall be greatly missed, the other, not so much. But hey, if I wanna do what I wanna do in later chapters *cough*nextchapter*cough* I'd rather have those two far away and back home so no one can walk in on them if you know what I mean... Anyway, kudos and comment if you can and as always enjoy :D

“… I’m a what now?” Asked Apollyon his shock.

“You’re a pagan god now.” Said the Wizard. “Don’t get a big head now, it’s just a title.”

And here Apollyon was going to see the Wizard so he could drop off some glazed yams his mum had made to thank him for looking out for him while he was running around like a demon. He didn’t expect to be elevated to the status of a god. He was pretty content with just being him, whatever that was. He still didn’t understand what it was exactly. 

Apollyon put the glazed yams down on a table and scratched his head. “So um… Since I’m a god now what the heck does that mean?”

“Pagan god.” Corrected the Wizard. “The ICGMAC has ruled your existence as tolerable and has dubbed you a pagan god because while you have power you don’t go out of your way to cause harm to the wider world, unless provoked. Long story short, you can live however you like in Stardew Valley and no one will harm you, but we are going to keep an eye on you.”

“…Huh, alright. Are there many of these pagan gods around?”

“There’s a few.” He looked over at the glazed yams and nodded a little. “Your mother’s recipe?”

“Yep. She’s a good cook.”

“She is. So, do you have any further questions about your new title, Apollyon?”

“Do I have to do anything?”

“Just keep doing what you were doing before you died and came back as some demon amalgamation. By the way how is that going? All back to normal or are you still not all there?”

Apollyon shrugged. He hadn’t had many physiological changed that he noticed since he had regained his mental and physical functions. The only major thing was that his skin was still grayish and didn’t have proper pigmentation, apart from that he thought he was good. He didn’t have claws anymore or any random limbs poking out of his body.

The Wizard just frowned a little at his nonchalant attitude. “Well, just be careful. You probably still have Morgana’s magic flowing through you. I am not sure what her end goal is going to be now that you have this status. Just be careful, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Later Wizard.” Apollyon left the tower and headed over to Marnie’s ranch. Today he was going to get a heater and get his chickens back. He opened the door and grinned when he felt the warmth radiating from the fireplace in the next room.

The women grinned as soon as she saw him. “Apollyon, so good to see you again. Where have you been? People were starting to talk.”

Apollyon laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “Ah yes, you see my parents came over and I got sick, so I haven’t been able to leave the farm for a while. Hope I didn’t worry anyone too much.”

“Oh, you were getting there. So what can I do you for?”

“I finally have enough money to get a heater and get my chickens back.” Said Apollyon proudly.

Marnie beamed at him and happily helped him take his heater back to the coop and placed the chickens back. Butter and Crispy seemed very pleased to be back in their home and happily pecked at the ground. Once the chickens were happy Marnie headed back to the ranch.

Apollyon double checked that they had enough feed and headed back home. Elizabeth and Colt were in the middle of packing away their things. Now that Apollyon was all better they didn’t have any reason to stay any longer.

“Do you have everything?” Asked Colt.

“Yes dear.” She said. She looked over at Apollyon and sighed sadly. “Baby bean… I’m going to miss you.” She hugged him tightly. “Now, call us over soon, and not just because something bad happened.”

“I will mum. Don’t you worry. Want me to walk you two back to the bus stop?”

Colt huffed a little. “We’re fine. Come on Elizabeth.”

She sighed a little obviously not happy with how abrasive Colt was being towards Apollyon. “We’ll see you really soon baby bean. I’ll send you your winter star present in the mail.” She kissed his cheek and left with Colt.

While Apollyon was happy to have his home back he was kind of sad that his mum was gone. Then again her leaving meant Colt was gone too so that was the only good thing really. He sighed a little and sat on the couch. Immediately Goblin jumped up and sat on his lap. She looked up at him and licked her lips. 

“Meow.”

He chuckled and gave her a few pats. She seemed to appreciate the jumper she was given now that the weather was freezing cold. Today she was sporting a jumper with a jack o’lantern on it. It was one of the ones he had ordered off the internet. Sometimes when she curled up she actually looked just like a pumpkin. He loved it.

“Yes Goblin, they are gone and I’m back to normal. You’re just going to have to get used to Sebastian coming by so no big deal.” A stupid grin made its way onto his face as he thought about Sebastian coming over and maybe finally being able to do it without something dumb happening, like someone accidentally kneeing the other in the dick.

***

Sebastian didn’t like going down to the clinic at the best of times. Maru worked there and depending on what he went there for she might say something to Demetrius or Robin by accident and get him into trouble. Well, not really in trouble per say, but it could lead him into some kind of awkward situations.

Luckily for him as he sat in the waiting room Maru didn’t seem to want to make small talk. Either that or she realized that he wasn’t going to say anything so she didn’t bother. After waiting what seemed like forever Harvey came out and got Sebastian to follow him into the back room.

“Now,” said Harvey. “What can I do for you Sebastian? Your annual checkup isn’t until next Summer.”

He shrugged. “I’m thinking of quitting smoking.” He hoped that Harvey wouldn’t be too nosey and ask why he wants to quit. Sebastian highly doubt Harvey would believe him when he said that he wanted to quit smoking because it was a bitch chasing after his demon boyfriend and trying to make sure that no one would see said demon boyfriend and freak out.

Harvey didn’t ask, but he did look very pleased. “That’s really good. So how long have you been smoking?”

“About five years I guess?” Sebastian wasn’t completely sure when he started, but he was pretty sure it was during his senior years in high school. It was a stressful time for him.

Harvey nodded and scribbled down a few things on his clipboard. “I see… Mind of I ask if there’s any reason why you smoke? Do you just do it because or is it a way to unwind and relax?”

“I mainly smoke when I’m stressed.”

“How many do you go through a week?”

“Maybe a pack? A pack and a half?”

Harvey nodded and scribbled down a few more things. “Alright… Now I don’t think you should quit cold turkey. That probably wouldn’t end too well for you. I think nicotine replacement therapy would work well for you. A combination of patches and gum should work out well for you.” He wrote a few things on a notepad and handed it over to Sebastian. “I’m pretty sure that Jojamart will have these brands. Use as directed on the box. If Jojamart doesn’t have this you can come back and I’ll order it in for you.”

Sebastian took the note and read it over. He was pretty sure he had seen this the few times he had been in there. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Is that all? No colds or fevers?”

“Nah, I’m healthy.”

“Well that’s good. Hope you have a good day. Feel free to come back at any time, and remember if you relapse at any point it’s okay. You can just try again, and hopefully you’ll be able to quit a little longer then last time. Each time you quit it gets a little easier.”

Sebastian nodded a little and quickly left the clinic without looking at Maru. He doubted that she would have said anything anyway. He walked to the Jojamart and looked through the pharmaceutical section. He quickly found one of the brands Harvey had written on the note and quickly got some gum and patch combo pack.

He nodded to Sam who was mopping up at the back of the store while listening to his music. He grinned when he saw Sebastian and gestured to what he was holding. Sebastian held up the box and Sam looked surprised. He dragged his mop bucket a little closer to Sebastian and took out of his ear buds.

“Congrats man. Finally trying to kick the habit?”

“Yeah, figured I should try and stop sending myself to an early grave. Harvey said this brand was pretty good.”

Sam nodded and kept mopping up, quickly glancing around to make sure Morris wasn’t around. “Well since I don’t smoke I wouldn’t really know. But if Harvey recommended it I guess it’s good.”

“Yeah.” He looked down at the packaging again. He was going to have to throw his cigarettes out. He couldn’t keep that temptation away if he was going to take this attempt seriously.

“What are you doing Sam?” Snapped Morris as he stormed over to him. “You’re not paid to talk to your friends.”

“Yes sir. Sorry sir.” Sam quickly walked away to mop near the frozen foods.

Sebastian cast him an apologetic look and quickly went to pay for his items. When he got outside he tossed his cigarettes in the closest bin and started chewing on some nicotine gum. It was alright for the most part. He wasn’t a big gum chewer. He hoped he wouldn’t have too many withdrawal symptoms.

He walked to Apollyon’s farm wondering if his boyfriend was going to be there or if he was going to be running around. Sure enough Apollyon was there, but he was hacking away at the trees with his axe. He was taking a few particularly hard swings at a tree stump, muttering something almost incoherent to himself as he did so.

“… Hey?”

Apollyon glanced over at Sebastian and grinned. “Hey there love. What’s up?”

Sebastian smiled a little and walked over. “Nothing much. I just wanted to see you. What are you up to today?”

“I saw the Wizard and now I’m chopping wood. You?”

“Nothing much. Just existing. Your parents inside?”

“Nah, Mum and Colt headed off this morning. Farm’s all mine again.” He picked up his axe again and started chopping again.

“… What do you need all that wood for?”

“Barns, coop upgrades, house extensions, farm things like kegs, and fences. I’m going to make a fence for my fruit orchid.”

He smiled a little. “You still going on about that?”

“Well a lot of my fences and trees got leveled when those assholes came by and tried to kill me. I have to plan everything out now again.” He pouted a little and ran his fingers through his hair. “Sucks, but whatever. I gotta do what I gotta do. Feel free to go inside and make yourself some coffee or something It’s pretty cold out here and I’m gonna be out here for a little while.”

“Thanks. Don’t stay out here too long. Okay?”

“Don’t worry. I don’t plan to.”

Sebastian smiled a little and walked inside. Goblin looked up at him from her position on the couch for a moment before laying back down and stretching out and ignoring him. He also ignored her and went about making his coffee. He also made one for Apollyon. By the time he had made both cups Apollyon was done chopping wood and made his way back inside. 

“Thanks love.”

“No problem.” Sebastian gave Apollyon a cup and sat down on the couch next to Goblin. 

Apollyon moved Goblin off the couch and sat next to him. He took a sip of his coffee and cringed a little. “Bitter…”

“Oh, right. Should have asked if you take yours with sugar and milk…”

“Don’t worry about it. I just forgot you take your coffee black.”

Sebastian hummed a little and drank more of his coffee. He needed to start asking questions. Right now was as good as any. “So… How long have those people been trying to kill you?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Years and years. It got more frequent after high school. But I think that was because I was a very angry person and liked getting into fights with people. It was easier for them to keep track of a thing that would attack other people…” He chuckled a little. “That’s why I started working for Joja. It was the most soul crushing and boring job possible so I’d be dead tired and unable to have the energy to fight.”

“… Did that work?”

“Kind of, but it just left me depressed and anxious. I’m glad I came to the valley. Sure the work is hard, but it’s so much better than sitting behind a desk all day.” He smiled a little and looked over at Sebastian. “Plus coming here I got to meet you. I never really thought I’d be able to meet someone that was cool with me being a demon. I don’t like hiding who I am from the people I’m close to but I’m glad you understood and accepted me.”

Sebastian felt a little guilty hearing that. “I didn’t believe you… Like until you actually died and stuff I didn’t believe you were actually a demon.”

“… Oh.”

“Sorry…”

“It’s okay. It’s kind of unbelievable…” He put his cup on the coffee table and nervously played with his jacket. “Normal people shouldn’t have any reason to believe it so why would you?”

“… Look, your normal isn’t most people’s normal.” Explained Sebastian. “When someone says they are a demon people don’t usually take that at face value. But I’m glad I stuck around and you know, I’m happy we’re together now.” He reached over and gently squeezed Apollyon’s hand. “I didn’t run away when I found out the truth did I? I stayed with you and well, now I feel like I’m closer to you.”

Apollyon squeezed back. “Really?”

“Really.” He leaned over and kissed him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”


	35. Stupid sexy demon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, this chapter is like 90% badly written smut. I tried. Kudos and comment if you can and enjoy the badly written smut.

Sebastian had started coming over more and more over the next few days. He said it was because work had finally started to let up now that the feast of the winter star was coming up and businesses were closing for the holidays. Apollyon wasn’t complaining. It meant they got to spend more time together. Most of it was spent curled up on his couch watching movies.

At the end of one of their latest movie, Apollyon ended up resting his head on Sebastian’s shoulder and hummed a little. “So um… I got a letter the other day from Lewis.”

“Hmm?”

“So you guys do a secret Santa kind of thing for the feast?” Asked Apollyon. “He sent me a letter and said my secret friend this year is Robin. I have no idea what to get your mum. Help me.”

Sebastian shrugged a little. “She really loves goat cheese, peaches and spaghetti. She also goes nuts for hardwood… Don’t laugh at that you pervert.”

“Sorry. Can’t help it.” Truly, Apollyon was a very immature individual. “Okay, I’ll make her some spaghetti… Is there anything you want?” 

Sebastian sounded surprised. “Oh, you don’t have to get me anything.”

“Nah, I wanna get you something nice.” He looked up and kissed his cheek. “Got a book or something you really want?”

“Not that I can think of off the top of my head… What was the winter star like for you growing up?”

Apollyon thought for a moment. Most of his childhood was spent in the backseat of a car. He didn’t have an extravagant feast or a million presents like other kids. He didn’t even have a winter star tree. Best he had was a tree air freshener that he stuck some stickers on. His feast was whatever dinner they would have at the local homeless shelter with his mum giving him her dessert while she ate his carrots. His presents were more like a collection cheap knick-knacks. One year he got a knockoff truckmorpher. Flawless Elite. The colour scheme was all wrong and it never completely clicked into place when it transmorphed into tank truck, but he loved it.

He was sure Sebastian didn’t really want to hear that. “It was… It was just my mum and me mostly. It was quiet but we had each other and I was happy. I think mum was sad because she didn’t give me all the things other kids had growing up. I didn’t mind though. I was happy just to be with my mum.”

“… Is this gonna be the first time celebrating it without your mum?”

Apollyon chuckled. “Ah no. Last year I spent it sitting home while eating winter star themed chicken nuggets and terrible holiday themed movies. Depressing but that’s life. You?”

“Well, the town has a huge feast thing down in the town and we exchange gifts. Of course we also exchange gifts and stuff among family and stuff like that.” Said Sebastian. He sighed a little and ran his fingers through Apollyon’s hair. “So um… you can like come over and eat with us during the festival… I think mum would like that.”

“Just your mum?”

“Well of course I’d like it too. That’s just a given.”

Apollyon chuckled and cuddled him. “Good. I’ll look forward to it. It’ll be nice.”

“Yeah.”

Apollyon hummed happily and continued to let Sebastian play with his hair. It made him want to purr and do that thing cats do with their paws. That weird kneading thing they do when they get all comfy. Maybe he wasn’t all back to being completely human yet. Either way he liked Sebastian playing with his hair.

“… So um…”

“So?”

Sebastian coughed a little, blushing slightly. “Well, we haven’t really been able to you know… do it…”

“To be fair I think most people won’t want to fuck after getting kneed in the dick.” He cringed a little at that thought. Sebastian had really bony knees. “I only had all my human bits back in place for like a few hours and there you go trying to crush it.”

“It was an accident.”

Apollyon poked his tongue out. “Still mean. You should have warned me you were into that sadistic shit.”

“Oh my Yoba…”

“Hey, I like getting dominated once in a while but I’d rather not have my junk crushed.”

Sebastian blushed and lightly pushed Apollyon away. “You’re such an ass.”

Apollyon grinned and playfully nudged him. “Aw, don’t be like that. Just because I’m a demon doesn’t mean I’m a totally sexually depraved sociopath. If that was the case I’d be living it up in the red light districts of Zuzu city. Every working girl and boy would know me by my name and would show up at my funeral when I would inevitably fake my own death to start a new life somewhere else. The red light district would shut down for a week at my loss.”

The look on Sebastian’s face was priceless. Well, not really. He just looked at Apollyon like he was full of shit. “You just think you’re that good huh? If I remember last time it was my hand that made you cum.”

“And it would have been my mouth making you cum if I didn’t have a bunch of demon shark teeth in the back of my mouth at the time.”

That made Sebastian blush more. “Oh really now?”

It was a case of Apollyon not having a filter between his brain and his mouth and just spewed out words without thinking. “I’m willing to put my money where mouth is or mouth where your dick is as the case may be.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of them as they just stared at each other. Sebastian cleared his throat a little and averted his eyes. “I um… Well if you want to I wouldn’t say no…”

Apollyon smiled a little. “I want to, but before we do I kind of want to make sure all my teeth are back to normal. Have a look please?” He opened his mouth and let Sebastian look at his teeth. He thought it was kind of cute the way Sebastian tilted his head back ever so slightly to check his top set of teeth. Then again if he was going to stick his dick in something that essentially had razorblades in it a few days ago he would probably be doing the same thing.

“… Yeah, your teeth look normal enough.”

“If you want you can touch them. It’s not like I’m going to bite your fingers off or anything.”

Sebastian hesitated a little. “Nah, I trust you.”

Apollyon grinned at him. “What? You’ll stick your dick in my mouth but not your finger? You’re weird.”

“Says the guy that got minced and came back as some sexless demon thing.”

“Pretty sure there would have been someone out there that would have been dtf with me.”

“Possibly. The world is a weird place.”

Apollyon nodded in agreement and stood up, holding his hand out to Sebastian. “Bedroom?” The other didn’t say anything, but he smiled and took Apollyon’s hand and the two of them walked into the bedroom. 

The moment they stepped into the bedroom most of the coy and hesitant behaviour Sebastian was displaying ended as the two of them kissed. The kiss quickly heated up as hot breath mingled and hands almost desperately pulled the other closer to each other. One of them stumbled over one of Apollyon’s boots and the two of them tumbled onto the bed.

The sudden fall shocked the two of them and they both froze. After a moment Apollyon chuckled and smiled up at Sebastian. “Hey, I didn’t get kneed in the dick this time.”

Sebastian pouted a little. “Don’t ruin the mood.”

“Not trying to.” He said in a playful manner as he glided his hands over Sebastian’s thighs, resting them on his hips just long enough to give his ass a firm squeeze. “You have a nice butt.”

That just made the raven haired man blush and avert his eyes. “I can just go home you know.”

“I know, and you can whenever you feel like it.” He reached up and ran his fingers through Sebastian’s hair. “I’ll never force you to stay if you want to leave.”

He smiled down at him and kissed him. Sebastian still wasn’t looking directly into Apollyon’s eyes. “I know.”

“So you gonna leave?”

“No.”

“Good.” He lightly grabbed Sebastian by his elbows and rolled him back onto the mattress with himself seated on his knees between his legs. He loved watching the way Sebastian’s hair fan out across the pillows. Sebastian looked perfect the way his milky white skin contrasted with his dark hair and even darker clothes. He felt like he could wax poetically like a certain local poet about how Sebastian’s skin was like marble, his colours in eyes continuous shimmered and changed like the untameable beauty of a sea storm, or how no matter what he did he always looked breathtaking.

Apollyon lightly pushed up Sebastian’s hoodie, delighted to feel the slightest quiver of his abdominal muscles under his touch. “Are my hands too cold?” He asked in a playful manner.

Sebastian rolled his eyes a little and moved up onto his elbows. He reached over to his lover and yanked his shirt so it was stuck around his head. “Keep asking like that and I’ll go home to jerk off.” He might have sounded harsh, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice that made Apollyon grin.

He pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto the floor. “I’ll try and stop asking if you’re comfortable.”

“Quit trying to be so thoughtful.”

“Nope. Love you too much to stop.” Cooed Apollyon. 

Sebastian blushed a little and looked away, clearly embarrassed by this. He was absolutely adorable. “Shut up.”

“Wanna keep going?”

“… Yeah.”

Apollyon leaned forward and kissed him. A small moan escaped his lips as Sebastian’s hands ran over his back and chest. It felt good to have his lover’s hands all over him. It made him giddy and hungry for more skin contact. With skilful ease he managed to undo the buttons on Sebastian’s jeans and started to tug them down. Sebastian eagerly lifted his hips and allowed Apollyon to swiftly remove them with ease.

He hummed a little and lightly ran his thumb over the soft cotton of Sebastian’s heavily tented boxer briefs. “Yellow?”

“What? You expecting black?”

Apollyon shrugged and sat back as he undid his own pants. “Kind of. Also picked you for a boxers kind of guy. Maybe something with a spooky spirits eve inspired pattern? Not sure why though.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes a little and watched Apollyon undress down to his underwear. “Pretty sure it’s only girl’s underwear that has patterns and junk like that on it.” He seemed to like what he was seeing. Next time Apollyon would have to consider putting on a show for him.

“Ah, well I guess one of us is gonna have to go and start searching the web for sexy underwear. Think I’d look sexy in a thong?”

His lover blushed horribly and let out a groan as he collapsed back onto the bed, covering his face. “Stupid sexy demon…”

Apollyon couldn’t help the stupid grin that spread his across his face as he kicked off his pants. “Yay, you think I’m a sexy demon.”

“You forgot the stupid part.”

“I choose to ignore that part.” He leaned over Sebastian and rifled through his bedside drawer, taking out a bottle of lube and condom. “You actually gonna take off your hoodie or do I need to completely undress your stupid sexy human body?”

Sebastian spluttered a little and tossed his hoodie and shirt aside. “Shut up.”

Apollyon smiled a little and kissed Sebastian’s cheek. “I mean it. You are stupidly sexy. I wouldn’t want to have a sexual relationship with someone I didn’t find sexy in some way. You, I find sexy in every way.”

“You’re just saying words now.” 

“Words that are true. True. True. True. True. True.” He punctuated each true with a firm kiss to his face, neck, or shoulder. Whatever his mouth was closest to at the time. He loved the way Sebastian’s heart started racing when he pressed his lips against his neck. He let his hand run across Sebastian’s inner thigh and lightly cupped his crotch, excited when he heard Sebastian gasp a little. “Sexy human.”

“Stupid demon.” He muttered as his cheeks began to burn red, not with embarrassment but his own arousal.

“Aw, I’m no longer a stupid sexy demon?”

“Took you long enough to remember the stupid part. There’s some hope for you yet.” He reached over and pulled down Apollyon’s underwear. 

Apollyon moaned as his erection hit the cool air of the bedroom. He also happened to notice the slight relief the briefly flashed across Sebastian’s face. “… Did you think my dick wasn’t going to be normal?”

He shrugged a little. “Hey, I don’t know demon anatomy. You could have had some weird demon cat dick or dog dick as far as I knew.”

Apollyon snickered a little. “Babe, if having barbs on a dick or a knot is the weirdest thing you can think of, you have not been watching enough nature documentaries. Never look at documentaries with slugs doing the nasty.”

He cringed. “Fuck, you’re gonna make me go soft if you keep talking about slugs fucking. That’s gross.”

“It might be gross, but it’s one of those gross things you can’t turn away from, no matter how freaking disturbing it is.”

Apollyon was about to go off on a tangent when Sebastian grabbed hold of his dick and started stroking. “I have no idea if taking about weird animals doing each other is dirty talk to you, but if it is you really need to work on it.”

“Hmm, yes sir.” He moaned as he weakly thrusted up into his hand, trying to get him to move his hand faster. Before he could enjoy himself too much Sebastian moved his hand away. Apollyon let out a pathetic whine. “Bastian…”

Sebastian hummed a little and lovingly cupped his cheek, rubbing his thumb over Apollyon’s bottom lip. “I believe one of us was gonna give a blow job?”

“… Yes sir.” Apollyon had no idea where this suddenly dominant side came from, but he liked it. He shuffled back and let Sebastian sit up. He moved to the edge of the bed and gestured for Apollyon to sit on the floor, which he happily did. He hummed happily and tugged down Sebastian’s underwear exposing him. He took his length into his hand and ran his tongue along the underside of his shaft to the head. He relished the pleased moan that that escaped his lover’s lips. Encouraged by this Apollyon swirled his tongue around the head before letting his lips envelop him and he gave a gentle suck.

He placed his hands on Sebastian’s thighs and felt his lover’s pulse starting to race. It felt good to be able to make his lover heart race so quickly. Then again he might still be a little worried about his potentially sharp teeth. He ignored that thought and started to bob his head, taking just a little bit more of his lover each time.

Sebastian slowly became more vocal, gripping the bed sheets. He let out a deep groan when Apollyon’s tongue rubbed against the more sensitive area on the underside of his head. Glancing up, he only just managed to see Sebastian roll his head back as he let out a rather loud moan. In that moment nothing sounded sexier to Apollyon. Then again they were just starting and he could guarantee Sebastian would be making more sexy sounds.

“Fuck,” he moaned. “Fuck I’m so close.”

Hearing that Apollyon pulled back, giving the tip one last quick lick. “Nope.”

“… You’re an asshole.”

“Thought I was the stupid sexy demon?”

“Still doesn’t change the fact you’re an asshole.”

“I’d be an asshole if I just left you hanging like that.” He stood up and picked the bottle of lube he had previously gotten. “But I’m not. Lie back however you want and let me take care of you.”

It took a moment but eventually Sebastian got onto his knees and hugged a pillow. Though Apollyon would have preferred Sebastian on his back so he could see his lovers facial expression he wasn’t going to question it. He squirted some lube onto his fingers and started to rub against Sebastian’s hole. Sebastian squirmed a little under him as a blush quickly started to run down his neck, clearly visible against his skin. It was gorgeous.

It didn’t take too long before Apollyon was able to slip in a finger. He carefully watched Sebastian’s body language. He watched for any discomfort or laboured breathing coming for his love. He leaned forward and gently planted kisses along Sebastian’s shoulder and neck.

“Hey, if it gets too much for you just tell me to stop and I will. No shame in telling me to stop.”

Sebastian mumbled something incoherent into the pillow.

“… What?”

His boyfriend turned his head just enough so he could speak without being muffled. “Just been a while…”

“Want me to slow down a little?”

“… No.” He mumbled.

Sebastian’s voice was just too cute. He continued to finger his lover while kissing his shoulder blades and neck. As he added another finger Sebastian started moaning more as his eyelids started to slip shut. With his free hand Apollyon brushed some of Sebastian’s hair away so he could have a better look at his face.

If he was a weaker man, Apollyon would have just jumped him now. “You doing okay Sebastian?”

“Y-yeah. I’m fine.” He panted, but the second Apollyon twisted his wrist Sebastian’s legs buckled a little as he let out a particularly large moan. “Fuck!”

Apollyon smirked a little and continued to move his wrist in the same way to draw out more and more of those amazing sounds. Sebastian didn’t disappoint, though after a while it turned into him repeating the word fuck over and over again like a mantra. It was sexy.

Eventually he couldn’t wait any longer and started to look for the condom he took out before as he removed his fingers. He watched Sebastian whine as he rolled onto his side. He looked a little disappointed and a little frustrated but otherwise okay.

“You okay Sebastian?”

“… I was so close again…” He muttered.

Apollyon chuckled a little and put on the condom. “Sorry, sorry. I promise I’ll make you feel good in a moment.” He carefully moved Sebastian onto his back, smiling a little when he averted his eyes. His mild embarrassment was really cute. “You think you’re prepped enough?”

“… Yeah. Just put it in already.”

Apollyon smiled a little and settled himself between Sebastian’s legs. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah, I just…” He looked away. “It’s been a while…”

“Hey, it’s normal to be embarrassed having sex with someone for the first time. I was embarrassed and nervous as fuck when I pulled my dick out for the first time in front of you.” He gently cupped Sebastian’s cheek and tilted his face so that they were looking at each other. “Are you sure you want to keep going?”

Sebastian sighed a little and pulled Apollyon down into a kiss. “Why do you have to be so nice all of a sudden?”

“Because I love you.”

“Stupid demon.”

“Stupid sexy human.”

“Stop talking so much and fuck me already.”

Apollyon chuckled a little at Sebastian’s bluntness as he reached in between the two of them, gripping his shaft and lining up at his entrance. With little resistance he eased into him. Fully sheathed inside of his lover, Apollyon let out a shaky breath. The heat radiating from his lover made it feel like he was melting and it was quickly driving him crazy. Slowly, he started to move.

Sebastian released a heavy sigh as he dug his nails into Apollyon’s shoulders as Apollyon rocked into him. Apollyon groaned a little in response and buried his face into Sebastian’s neck. He pressed hot, open mouthed kisses into his lover’s neck while Sebastian laced his fingers in Apollyon’s hair while moaning into his ear. Okay, that was the sexiest sound Sebastian had made that night.

As Apollyon quickly picked up the pace of his thrusts he found one of Sebastian’s legs quickly wrapped around his hips, allowing him to push even deeper. A lustful growl bubbled up in his throat as he lightly started to bite the ever so soft and inviting flesh of Sebastian’s neck and shoulders. His bites made his lover gasp and dig his nails harshly into his back. More than likely it was going to leave angry red lines across his skin, but it felt too good for him to care right now.

“F-fuck!” Moaned Sebastian. “So close… Harder.”

With that Apollyon almost came completely undone. He held Sebastian’s hips tightly and started thrusting harder into him. Sebastian threw his head back and tightly gripped the headboard, but it still didn’t stop it from banging against the wall. His eyes were screwed shut and his lips slightly parted as he panted and started muttering all kinds of incoherent things again.

Now it was Apollyon’s time to curse as he felt a tight coil quickly building up inside him at an almost insane pace. He didn’t have long now, though he wanted to keep it going for as long as possible. He just had to keep it going for one more minute, just one more minute.

Suddenly Sebastian’s stomach muscles spasmed and he cursed as he came between them. That was enough to send Apollyon over the edge as he reached orgasm and thrust deep inside him as he came. 

As Apollyon slowly came down from his high he pulled out of his lover and tossed the condom into a nearby bin. He collapsed on his side next to Sebastian and the two stayed like that for several minutes, panting and breathless.

“… I need a cigarette.” Muttered Sebastian.

Apollyon chuckled a little and brushed some of the hair off of Sebastian’s sweat stained face. “Really? I am going to kick you outside without your clothes if you wanna do that.”

“Rude.”

Apollyon shrugged and picked up his shirt, using that to wipe him and Sebastian clean. “Yep. That’s me. Big o’l rude demon. Want to have a bath now or later?”

Sebastian thought for a moment and shrugged. “Fuck it. Tomorrow is fine. I’m too tired to move.”

“But not tired enough to not want to smoke?”

“Hush you.”

Apollyon laughed a little and cuddled Sebastian. “Hey, let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll pamper you and look after you.”

Sebastian yawned a little and pulled the bed sheets up over them. “You better. Stupid sexy demon.”

“Stupid sexy human.”


	36. Saloon night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick question, would anyone be interested in kind of exploring the more... Yoba plane side of things? Like, I already did some stuff about the Void, but I haven't really said too much about things like angels or the ethereal beings that exist in the world of Stardew Valley. Anyway, kudos and comment when you can and enjoy :D

Sebastian felt like he was going to die of embarrassment. Somehow he had managed to wake up before Apollyon and shuffled into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror his shoulders and neck were covered in bite marks. Most of them were bruises but a few on the ones that had pierced his skin just a little down near where his neck met his shoulder. They weren’t deep just enough to knick his skin like a scratch.

He blushed as he thought about it. Apollyon had been amazing last night, but he was going to kick his ass is he was going to edge him on like that again. It wasn’t like it didn’t feel good at the time but holy hell it was frustrating. Hopefully Apollyon wouldn’t make it a habit.

He shuffled over to the bath and started to run it. He was glad that his mum managed to install a bathroom when Apollyon got a house extension. Sebastian knew for a fact that he was never going to go out and bathe in a pond during the middle of winter. The warm water was nice but it quickly fogged up the room. Sebastian didn’t really care as he got in and leaned back. He loved it. It was so relaxing.

A knock at the door made him jump a little. “Hey, Sebastian? You in there?” Called Apollyon.

“Yeah. You need to pee or something?”

“One of the many problems of having the bath and toilet in the same room. So can I come in and pee or what?”

“… Sure.”

Apollyon opened the door and walked past Sebastian, completely naked and relieved himself. “You know, if you woke me up I would have gotten the bath ready for you. You sure do like your bath’s hot huh?”

Sebastian shrugged as he watched the muscles in Apollyon’s back relax a little. He had faded red lines running all down his shoulders and back. At least Sebastian wasn’t the only one to get superficially injured. “Eh, didn’t want to bother you. It wasn’t like I couldn’t walk or anything.”

“I guess…” He flushed and washed his hands. “I’m gonna go get dressed and feed the chooks. I’ll make breakfast when I get back. How do you like your eggs?”

“Not on my plate.” Muttered Sebastian. “I hate eggs with a passion.”

Apollyon looked shocked. “Seriously? But I was planning on making my famous cheese and bacon omelet.” 

“No eggs.”

“… Fine.” He walked over and kissed Sebastian. “If you’re not out by the time I come back I’m coming in to look for you.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes a little as he kissed back. “I’ll be fine love. It’s not like I’m gonna drown or something.” Apollyon chuckled and left the bathroom and Sebastian tilted his head back, letting out a small sigh. Yoba, Apollyon was being way too nice to him. At least that’s what he thought.

When the water started to get cold Sebastian got out, dried off and went to get dressed. Much to his surprise it seemed like Goblin had decided to relax on his hoodie. He didn’t like how smug the testical looked but still tried to carefully nudge her off his clothes. When she didn’t budge he just decided it wasn’t worth the effort and yanked it out from under her.

Goblin did a little flip and landed on her side. She looked up at him in disgust. “MEOW!”

“Next time don’t go parking your gross wrinkly ass on other people’s things and this wouldn’t happen.” She hissed at him and bolted out of the bedroom.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and pulled on his hoodie. He was glad that Goblin was hairless right now. He would have been mad if he had to brush cat hair off his clothes. He walked out sat on the couch, turning on the TV. The weather report said that today was clear and sunny but to expect snow storms tomorrow. He flipped over to the Queen of Sauce and listened to the blond haired woman talk about making a thing called a lucky lunch.

Suddenly the door opened up and Apollyon walked in straight into the kitchen. He was carrying something wrapped in his hands. “Oh, hey love. Good to see you managed to pull yourself out of the bath.”

“Nice to see you didn’t freeze outside.”

Apollyon laughed and unwrapped the thing he had in his hands. Turns out it was a salmon. “How do you feel about having fish and hashbrowns for breakfast?”

“… I am indifferent, but where did you get that fish?”

“Willy sent it to me.” Apollyon quickly started to prepare the fish and potatoes. “Lots of people have sent me stuff in the mail. More than once Shane’s sent me a frozen pizza in the mail. Though when I asked him about it he said he must have gotten really drunk… Either way I got free pizza.”

“Free mail pizza is best pizza.”

“Yep.” Apollyon hummed as he cooked. “You like your fish with our without the skin on?”

“Skin on.” Sebastian smiled a little as he watched him go. He looked happy to be working over a hot stove. Maybe he just liked cooking? Maybe he liked cooking for him? That would actually be really nice. He wasn’t too good at cooking himself and didn’t really do anything too fancy when he did. So this was nice.

Suddenly Goblin jumped up onto the kitchen table and hissed at Apollyon. He jumped in surprise and looked down at her. “Why are you so mad this morning? I put food and milk in your bowl.”

“Aren’t cat’s actually like, lactose intolerant or something?”

“Well yeah, but this is special cat milk, made for cats. It’s a treat for her.” He cut off a thin, fatty piece of salmon and gave it to her. “Stop being so mad.”

“… Meow.” She grabbed the fish and quickly dashed off.

Apollyon laughed and continued to cook. “Do you have anything planned for today?”

“Not really. Well, it’s Friday so like I’m going to the Saloon later tonight but that’s about it. You?”

“Planning farm stuff for next year.” He gestured over to some pencils and a note book on the table. “I’m going to try and maximize my crop output and I’m investigating if my chickens are just good for their eggs or if I can use them for something else… Also thinking of getting a duck… Maybe a cow…” He grinned at that thought. “I shall name her mignon.”

“Minion?”

“No, mignon. Like as in filet mignon.”

“… Why?”

“Because I named my chickens Butter and Cripsy. I’m kind of going on a food theme here.” He quickly plated up the food and gave Sebastian his plate. “Here, don’t feed Goblin any more. She’s already had enough treats for one day.”

Sebastian accepted the plate and happily ate. “Well I think she hates me so she’s not gonna want to come near me.”

“Wish you two could get along.”

“Eh, me and cat’s don’t get along too well. But I won’t bother her if she doesn’t bother me.”

The two continued to eat their breakfast and talk about random things. Eventually when Apollyon went to go and sketch up a few designs Sebastian made a few suggestions and asked a few questions. Apollyon was happy to share his own thoughts about why or why not he might implement Sebastian’s ideas until it started to get late.

“You heading out to the Saloon now Seb?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna go home tonight too. So don’t stay up for me, okay?”

“Okay love. Have fun.”

***

When Sebastian was gone Apollyon let out a depressed sigh. He ran his tongue over his gums, unable to feel the perfectly smooth, slimy membrane he felt small, rough pitted parts just above his teeth. And when he clenched his jaw he felt something trying to force their way through. It was like a second set of teeth were trying to break through. No, it was a second set of teeth. 

He didn’t really understand why that was. He had thought he was back to normal now but apparently he still had some demon traits left over. Thankfully none of his more physical traits came through. He could only imagine what Sebastian would have said if that had happened during sex. Apollyon could only hope that Sebastian was a real kinky guy and would be down with some monster sex. Apparently the internet was full of people that that.

But he highly doubted that Sebastian would be cool with that. He just didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would be okay with getting subdued by a huge, clawed, fanged creature that could easily crush him by accident. Though he had to admit the thought of Sebastian being completely subdued under him was shamefully erotic to him.

Apollyon blushed and shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of those weird thoughts. “Ah, why did he have to be so damn cute and sexy? Stupid sexy human.”

He picked up his note book and started to write down what crops he needed to get for Spring. According to his calculations he needed to buy and plant more cauliflower and lots of parsnips. For some stupid reason the Junimos wanted five very perfect parsnips. Said they wanted it for some weird reason. Did they eat those things? It was impossible for him to really know. Those creatures were weird.

***

The second Sebastian stepped into the arcade Abigail made a beeline for him. “Oh Yoba Seb, is that a bite mark on your neck?”

Sebastian blushed and pulled the collar of his hoodie up tightly around his neck. He didn’t think it was that visible. “No…”

“It so totally is.” She grinned and poked his cheek. “You two had a lot of fun last night, or earlier today.”

“Shut up Abby.” He mumbled.

She chuckled and shook her head. “Hey, I’m not asking for details. But is like, Apollyon gonna show up anytime soon?”

“Don’t think so. He’s too busy making plans for his farm next year.” He looked around and frowned. “Where’s Sam?”

“Bathroom, but he was super excited about something and he said he wouldn’t tell me what it was until you showed up. Lame right?”

Sebastian shrugged and started to set up the pool table. Moments later Sam walked back in and went over to them. He had a huge grin on his face. “Hey guys so, big news. This morning my mum got a letter and- Are those bite marks on your neck?”

Sebastian pulled his hood up and yanked hard on the drawstrings so only his nose and mouth were visible. “Moving on.”

“… Right, well my mum got a letter and my dad’s finished his tour. He’s coming home next year.”

Abby gaped and hugged Sam tightly. “That’s so good! He’s been away for like what? Three years? I can’t believe it that’s so good!”

Sebastian smiled a little. “That’s cool. You might wanna look up stuff about PTSD and stuff though.”

“Why?”

“Dude, your dad’s been in a warzone. He’s probably seen some really fucked up shit he’ll never tell you guys. He could get triggered by like smelling something burning or hearing bubble wrap pop. You never know.” Sebastian himself was in no way an expert on these things but just watching the occasional war documentary he found interesting PTSD was always a huge thing when soldiers came home. He wanted things to go well for Sam and his family.

Sam frowned a little at Sebastian’s words. “… Huh, okay. I’ll have read up on that. I don’t think any of us would really know what to do if dad came home and a psychotic break… That’s what it’s called right? Or is it called something else?”

Abby shrugged. “I think it’s called an episode or something. Not sure… Oh well, more things for you to research Sammy.” She grabbed her wallet and sauntered off to the bar. “First round is on me ladies.”

Once she was out of earshot Sam went and grabbed a pool cue. “So… Apollyon’s a biter?”

Sebastian felt his face start to burn with embarrassment. “Yes, yes he is… Is it really that obvious?”

“Kind of. Just tell him not to bite so high on your neck next time, or maybe consider wearing scarfs for a while? It is winter after all.”

“I guess…”

“So um… Who topped?”

“… Why do you want to know?”

Sam blushed a little. “Well… I’m Bi curious and was wondering if it hurts…”

“… Well if you prep enough and don’t try to shove a watermelon up your ass first go, I’m pretty sure you’re not gonna hurt yourself too badly. Just go slow, lots of prep and lots of lube. You guys were the ones that said we need to use a lot of lube in the first place.” He hoped that what he said was enough for Sam. He really didn’t want to go into details about his and Apollyon’s sex life. Him and Abby knowing about the biting was bad enough in his opinion.

Sam seemed satisfied with this answer, and it was a good thing too. Abigail had just come back with their drinks. She passed them out and happily raised her glass. “I want to propose a toast. A toast to old man Kent finally coming home.”

The three clinked their glasses together and continued with their night. It mainly consisted of Abby playing the arcade machines while Sebastian destroyed Sam in pool.


	37. Pendant recovery operation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment if you can :D

Today Apollyon was clearing out some more trees around the far side of his property. Specifically the Northwest corner. There the trees were really over grown and just kind of clumped together, making it ridiculously difficult to go through. To be honest he didn’t really understand how or why he was getting so tired so quickly. He could swing a sword for hours on end and not get tired but ten swings with an axe he felt like dying.

As he chopped away at the trees, he ended up stubbing his foot against some stones. On closer inspection it was a large stone tile, not a rock. Curious as to what this was Apollyon cleared all the foliage around it only to discover a shrine. There was an inscription on it that was worn away and almost illegible.

It annoyed him a little and continued to clear it away until he could clearly see some of the more well defined details of said shrine. It kind of looked like a tomb stone with an open book in front of it and four candle holders surrounded it. The whole thing was set into the side of the natural wall that bordered his farm. It looked interesting to say the least.

He crouched down and brushed off some dirt near a diamond shaped hole in the shrine when he noticed something sticking out between the shrine and the wall. He took it out, noting that it was a letter coated in a fine film of was. He had no idea how long it had been there or what it was doing there, but he took it out and had a quick read.

Apparently his grandfather’s ghost was going to come back on the third year of him living on the far. At least he hoped it was his ghost. If he was coming back as a zombie he would have a throw down with the old man.

“You are a complete and utter disappointment.” Called Morgana. Once again she was hovering around out of reach on her broom.

Apollyon was not in the mood for her antics and flipped her the bird. “Fuck off. I don’t have time for a psycho bitch like you. Because of you everything almost went tits up for me.”

She scoffed at him. “Oh don’t be such a baby. You messed up my plans big time. I put so much careful planning into it too. I even sent that flyer to that Yoba fanatic. Fat lot of good that did.”

“… You were the one that told Gadreel I was here?!”

“Yep. I thought for sure you were going to kill one of them. Hell, I was planning for it.” She sighed dramatically. “I watched the whole thing happen. When you turned into your perfect demon form you just… You didn’t kill the people that came here to kill you and you were so close to eating that stupid human.”

“… What?” His memories were pretty vague from when he came back. Did he really try and eat Sebastian? Wouldn’t he have said something to him if that had happened?

Seeing the worry coming over his face Morgana couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh yes. If it wasn’t for the pendant my ex gave the boy he would have gotten all chewed up.” She seemed way too disappointed that that didn’t happen. “If that wasn’t there and just two more seconds… But no! Everything had to be ruined! Damn Junimo’s threw it into the pond too… You didn’t even attack anyone when you went to find the stupid bastard a few days later!”

“Why do you want me to kill Sebastian so badly?!”

“Well he just seems like the most likely to die since you two are an item!” Snapped the witch. “Now you’re all like this. You kind of look dead!”

Apollyon growled and bared his teeth at her. “Shut up. This is all your fault. I wouldn’t look like this if it wasn’t for you. Your weird magic is making me look more like a demon!”

“… Um, well no. My magic kind of finished doing its thing when you became a full demon. Whatever all this is, this is just your body doing its natural thing without any kind of suppression going on. This is what you’re meant to look like.” She sighed a little and circled him on her broom. “Ah, I just wanted to cause some chaos to properly balance things out, but no. You had to go and screw things up. Now you’re a freaking pagan god!”

“… Yeah, so the Wizard said that means magic people have to leave me alone. So piss off.” Apollyon was quickly becoming uneasy with everything she was saying.

She just rolled her eyes and made an insulting hand gesture. “Hey, I’m not going to bother you for a long time. In a roundabout way my plan kind of worked. Granted I didn’t get the chaos I wanted but there is always a chance for that. Young magic users are idiots and if any of them think you can give them power or if you’re dangerous they might come to you from all over.”

“… Just leave me alone already”

Morgana laughed and started to float higher into the air. “Fine, I’ll be off now. Enjoy your new demonic body. Try not to munch on any stupid humans.” With one final cackle she zipped off somewhere.

Apollyon was uneasy about the thought that he was now back to his normal form, and that maybe people would try and find him. What was he meant to do if that happened? He didn’t have the ability to give people power or anything like that, and he didn’t want to fight anyone else that had it out for him. He needed to do something. He looked over at the pond and frowned a little. Apparently the demon repelling pendent was down there somewhere. He had an idea.

As he walked over to the pond he grabbed hold of a Junimo that happened to be trying to pull a yam out of the ground. This one was bright blue and seemed shocked they were getting man handled. “Wa? Wa up? Wa up?”

“I need your help for something. You guys can breathe underwater, right?”

“Owld bweth goo!”

“Excellent.” Apollyon got his fishing rod and tied the fishing line around Blue’s middle. “Now, I’m going to put you on the pond and you look for the pendant that the Wizard gave to Sebastian. I need to back for a thing. An important thing.”

Blue nodded and gave a tiny salute. “Okay! Hewp famer!”

“Glad we’re on the same page.” He picked up Blue and threw him into the pond. Much to his surprise the Junimo skipped across the water a few times and ended up floating like a bobber. Apollyon reeled them back in and gave the Junimo a rock. “Let’s try that again…”

This time when he threw Blue into the water they actually sank. From there Apollyon just had to sit and wait and contemplate what he was going to do now. Should he talk to Sebastian about this? Was this a couples thing they needed to do or was this a thing he could do himself? He was pretty sure this was just a him thing but he didn’t want to make some big mistake and upset Sebastian. That would be the worst.

Suddenly Blue bobbed back up to the surface clutching the pendant in their little stick arms. “Goh it! Goh it!”

“Thanks.” He reeled Blue back in, but when he attempted to grab hold of the pendant it felt like someone shot his finger. He cursed and shook his hand. Glancing down he was both surprised and not so surprised to see that his finger nail was almost completely blown off his ring finger. Almost. It was still hanging on by just a little bit if skin. Curing even more Apollyon bit it and yanked it off. “Mother fucking fuck… Okay. You keep holding that and we’ll go inside…”

He still had Blue on the end of his fishing rod so he held that out as far away from himself as he could while he walked into the house. He put Blue on the kitchen table and put Goblin in his bedroom for the time being. Normally he wouldn’t care but he needed Blue around for some help.

He then gathered some matches, candles, baking paper and a hand fan. “Okay Blue, put the pendant on the paper.” Once Blue did as they were told Apollyon lit a candle and started dripping wax onto it. Blue watched him for a moment before getting distracted by the burnt match. They started scribbling all over the table with it. “… You having fun there?”

“Ya!” Blue bobbed up and down and started scribbling some more. “Dis ooo!” They pointed to a stick figure with pointy teeth. “Dis ooo mate!” They pointed to a rather melancholy looking stick figure that looked like it might be smoking a cigarette. 

Apollyon chuckled a little. He was kind of amused to see the Junimo draw him and Sebastian. “Not bad. Anyone else?”

“… Dis me!” They scribbled down a little round ball with stick arms and legs. “Gonna draw ewey one!”

Apollyon let them continue to scribble as he let the wax drip. Once one side was covered he used the hand fan to completely dry it out. Once it was dry he got Blue to flip it so he could coat the other side. Once it had set he picked it up and turned it in his hand. Getting covered in this he didn’t expect it get hurt. Instead he felt kind of lethargic and the palm of his hand was quickly getting his proper pinkish hue back.

“… Okay. This will work.” He went back to the pons and dug up a handful of clay and rummaged around inside one of his drawers until he found one of those screw eyes and quickly encased the pendant in the clay. Once it looked like a small hockey puck he stick the screw eye in one side and handed Blue a fresh matchstick. “Can you draw something on this?”

Blue bobbed a little and drew a Junimo into it. “Dat me!”

“It sure is.” He put the pendant in the oven and let the clay bake for a bit. “Thanks for the help Blue.”

“No pwobwem. Hewp fwend!” Blue happily hopped off the table and waddled back outside to enjoy the rest of their day.

Once the pendant had hardened and cooled down Apollyon put a chian through it and put it on. That horrible fatigued feeling quickly coursed through his body and made his skin go back to its normal pinkish hue and the rough pitted feeling on his gums was gone.

Apollyon smiled a little. He was human. He was still human. Whatever demon parts of him were back to being squashed into some dark and twisted corner of himself where it belonged. It made him feel safe again. If anyone asked him about it he could just say he found it or that the Junimos gave it to him. Now that he had that sorted out, he was going to head down to the beach to collect some shells.

***

On the way he ended up passing Emily’s house just in time to see her walk out to put out the garbage. She grinned at him. “Hey Apollyon. Haven’t seen you out and about in ages. What are you up to today?”

“Going down to the beach to pick some shells. Wanna come with me?”

“Sure. I have some time before work starts.”

The two of them walked down to the beach, happily chatting away as they caught up with everything they had been up to. Emily was really excited about getting some thick woollen fabric to make some nice looking vests, one of which she was making for someone for the feast of the winter star. Apollyon in turn told her about his family visiting for a few weeks.

They both laughed and made jokes about awkward family things as they started to collect shells. Apollyon found a few nautilus shells. One of them was a little cracked but the other looked pretty much perfect. He could sell this one for sure. Emily found a sea urchin and was more than happy to give it to him.

“Thanks Emily. You’re the best.”

Emily grinned. “Aw, thanks Apollyon. So you know about the gift giving thing we do in town each year, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, since you don’t really have much of a family here you’re more than welcome to come sit at my table and eat us.”

“Ah, thanks for the offer but I think I’m going to eat with-” He quickly stopped himself. Sebastian didn’t want people to know about them, right? But they came out to his family. Would Sebastian be mad at him if he told Emily they were dating? He didn’t want Sebastian to be mad at him, but he didn’t want to lie to Emily either. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too mad at him. “I’m gonna me eating with Sebastian’s family this year.”

“Oh, did Robin invite you?”

Apollyon looked down at the shell in his hand and nervously turned it over a few times. “… Actually Sebastian offered. He’s my boyfriend.”

Emily was quiet for a few moments before she made a very excited noise. “Congratulations! I knew your auras were looking brighter than usual. Classic signs that a mutual romance has blossomed between you two.” She gave him a quick one armed hug. “I hope you two have a long and happy relationship together. When did it start?”

“A-around the end of Fall.” He didn’t know why he was starting to get a little flustered talking about Sebastian. All he could think about was his laugh, his smile, and how kind and understanding he had been with him for the past few weeks. “We spend as much time together as we can. It’s easier during the winter since it’s so cold and I don’t have to do a lot of farming stuff. It’s nice.”

“That’s so sweet. I hope you two have lots of fun falling deeper in love with each other.”

A small smile made its way across his face. “Every second I get to spend with him is another second I fall more for him… And now I sound all cliché and cheesy.”

“Hey, cheesy is good. Who doesn’t like cheese? Well… apart from lactose intolerant people… but there is lactose free cheese!” She dusted the sand off her hands and sighed a little. “Well, I should head off now. Hope things turn out well for you and Sebastian. You two look so cute together!”

Apollyon blushed some more and waved at Emily as she left. He wondered if he and Sebastian really did look cute together? In his opinion they were more of an odd couple rather than a cute couple, but it still made him happy. He imagined what they would look like walking down to the feast of the winter star together, hand in hand. It would be the first time they would be out in front of the town as a couple.

Would Sebastian even want to hold hands? If he didn’t feel comfortable holding hands then they probably wouldn’t kiss. That was kind of a sad thought, but he wanted to have a good time with him and join in with the towns traditions. After the feast they could either go back to his place or Sebastian’s bedroom and well…

“Ach! No time to think those things.” He muttered to himself. It was true too. He had no time to think about how sexy Sebastian’s moans were, or how unfocused his eyes became close to the climax, or how cute he might look if he wore some sexy lingerie. “… Brain, why do you do this to me?”


	38. Feast of the Winter Star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for the Winter star. Hope you all like it. Kudos and comment when you can :D

The 25th of Winter quickly rolled around and Apollyon was still hard at work putting the finishing touches on his gift for Robin. He had made a bowl, platter, and a couple of coasters out of some hardwood he had found around his property. He didn’t have time to varnish the coasters but he did varnish the other things so that wasn’t too bad. He put them in a box and wrapped it up in a bright red bow. He was proud to say that it looked somewhat decent. Hopefully Robin would like it. 

After that Apollyon fed Goblin and checked on his chickens before throwing on his jacket and heading down to the Town. Inside his pocket he also had a small gift for Sebastian. He was excited, really excited. He hadn’t gone to events or festivals for Feast of the Winter Star before. It was even more special for him because he’d be spending it with Sebastian.

By the time he got there it looked like the whole town was already there. He smiled and waved to the few people that greeted him. Looking at the center of town there was a huge winter star tree with lots of presents placed underneath surrounded by several tabled with lots of food placed on them. Now he was a little worried. Apollyon had no idea if he was meant to put his gift there or what.

As he thought this over Lewis approached him. “Ah, Apollyon my boy. Good to see you lad. How are you on this fine day?”

“Pretty good. Just wondering what I’m meant to do with this…”

Lewis glanced down at the gift in his hands and smiled a little. “Ah, well you can go and give your gift to whomever it is now. Most people just put the gifts under the tree so we can keep track of everything while we set up. Also it’s the only way to make sure that the kids don’t sneak off with any of the gifts early.”

“Got it. Thanks.” Apollyon quickly scanned the area, smiling a little when he saw Robin’s bright red hair. “Well, I’m gonna go and give this to Robin.” He walked over to Robin with a smile on his face. “Hey Robin.”

She grinned at him. “Hi Apollyon. Happy winter star. He pulled up an extra chair for you if you feel like eating with us.”

“Of course I’m going to eat with you guys. By the way, this is for you.” He passed Robin the box and her eyes lit up with excitement.

“So you were me gift giver this year? Thank you so much. Would you mind if I open it now?” She was already pulling on the bow.

Apollyon laughed a little and nodded. “Sure, go ahead. Where’s Sebastian?”

“Sebby went off with Sam somewhere. I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Just take a seat and he’ll be back in no time.” She opened the box and gasped. “Oh Apollyon, this is so nice. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Apollyon sat down at the table and poured himself a drink. He was already super excited about the festivities that were already underway.

***

Sebastian would have liked to have been at the festival right now, but instead he had been roped into helping Sam and Vincent. Vincent had misplaced his secret gift and couldn’t find it. He was really, really upset about it and it wasn’t like Sebastian was going to say no to helping a kid out if they asked for help.

“It’s in a box!” Said Vincent. “It’s a blue box with yellow spots. You can’t open it!”

“You got it little man.” Said Sam calmly. “You keep searching your room. Sebastian and I will check the rest of the house. We’ll find it no problem.”

Vincent was distressed, but quickly set about pulling his room apart while Sam and Sebastian went to looking around the living room. They checked under and around the sofas.

“How did your brother lose a gift anyway?” Asked Sebastian as he tried to use his phone light to look down the back of the couch.

“I don’t know man. Mum told him to get things ready before he went to bed… Thanks for helping out though. I appreciate it. So does Vincent.”

“It’s fine… Who was your person this year?”

“Pam. I got her a small bottle of a very fancy liquor… Penny wasn’t too happy about it, but it’s small, only about half a glass… But it was pretty expencive…”

“The best booze Jojamart can buy?”

“Yep.” Sam looked under the small table that Vincent usually did his homework. “Who did you get this year?”

“Caroline. Got her some resin flower figurine from an online craft store. She seemed to like it.”

“Nice. You got anything for Apollyon?”

“… Never you mind about that Sam. Let me do my thing.”

Sam grinned at his friend and gave him a knowing look. “Oh, so you’re gonna be doing that kind of stuff tonight huh?”

Sebastian blushed. “Shut up Sam.”

Suddenly Vincent ran out holding the box above his head. “I found it! I hid it in my toy box!”

His older brother grinned and ruffled his brother’s hair. “Good job little dude. Let’s go and give your gift to your person.”

“Yeah!” The trio left the house and walked to the festival. Sebastian kept an eye out for Apollyon. The second he saw his boyfriend he couldn’t help but smile. He was already sitting at the table and talking with Robin and Maru. He was glad his boyfriend was already fitting in really well with his family. “Mr Farmer!” Yelled Vincent as he quickly made his way over to him and thrust the present into his arms. “Happy Winter Star!”

Apollyon smiled at him and happily took the present. “Happy Winter Star to you too Vincent. Guess you were my secret gift giver this year?”

“Yeah! Open it! Open it! I’ve been saving this for ages!”

Apollyon opened the box and took out a large rainbow shell. “Wow! I love it. Thank you Vincent.”

Vincent grinned and went back over to Jodi.

Sebastian smiled a little and walked over to Apollyon, lightly tapping his shoulder. “Hey.”

His boyfriend looked up at him and grinned. “Hey. Look what Vincent got me. Isn’t it neat?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool.” He sat next to Apollyon and held his hand udner the table. He was fine with people knowing that they were together, but he still wasn’t one to advertise it to everyone just because they were together. “Wanna come back to my room after this?”

Apollyon grinned. “Sure. If you want you can come over and spend the night over at my place too. If you like.”

“I’d like that.”

The rest of the festival went rather well in his opinion. Lots of eating and talking about stuff. Apollyon looked really happy and was more than willing to talk to everyone about anything they asked him. That was kind of how he and Demetrius got into a huge talk about soil and plant growth. It was amusing to say the least, but at the same time kind of annoying. Once Demetrius got going he wouldn’t stop talking unless someone cut him off. He hoped Robin would soon.

Thankfully she did and Sebastian was able to try and monopolies his time again. It wasn’t like he was jealous or anything. He just wanted to spend just a little bit more time with Apollyon. It was the first time they were a couple during a festival and he just wanted things to go well. He totally wasn’t jealous or anything. That would just be childish and he wasn’t childish.

Okay he was a little childish. But he couldn’t help it. He really liked Apollyon and would have personally liked to have just spent the day with him instead of coming out here. But Apollyon seemed so happy to be doing this sort of thing so he wasn’t going to suddenly ask him to escape this dumb festival. If nothing else his mum would be pissed at him if he did.

Somewhere between eating some pumpkin pie and brooding, Apollyon managed to slip off without him noticing. Which annoyed him a little, but he quickly spotted him over by Emily and Haley. Now, normally he would have just let things be but today… Well he pushed back his anxiety as best he could and left the table to stand by Apollyon.

Apollyon seemed to be sharing some antic dote about Goblin being an asshole. “So long story short, all my jars are either screw tops or have latched on them.”

Emily laughed and shook her head. “Ah, cats are curious things. Maybe you should get her some more toys so she isn’t board?”

“I ordered one of those fancy cat trees on line.” Said Apollyon. “I think it has a couple of dangly things on it that she’ll like. Also have a little catnip ball coming too. Hopefully she won’t lose her shit too badly, but maybe she’ll mellow out a fair bit more.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Emily smiled brightly at Sebastian. “Hey Sebastian. Happy winter star. You and Apollyon got anything special planned?”

Sebastian felt the heat rising in his cheeks. “Why do you think we would have anything planned?”

She shrugged. “Apollyon said you two were boyfriends so I guess I just assumed you two were gonna do things together today. But I guess you two are doing separate family things after this?”

He quickly looked over at Apollyon. He seemed kind of nervous, like he got caught doing something wrong. Okay, sure Sebastian was a little surprised that Apollyon was telling people that they were dating, but he had already come out to his family and they were cool with him. So he didn’t really care too much about what other people thought about them.

“Oh…”

Haley looked a little surprised. “You two are gay then? Huh, alright. How come I didn’t know about this?”

Apollyon smiled sheepishly and held Sebastian’s hand. “Well, I don’t think either of us are very flashy or showy people. We’ve been together for a while but we don’t go around town making out with each other where anyone could just walk by and see us.”

A small smirk made its way onto Haley’s lips. “Oh? So you two have been making out in secret places around town?”

Sebastian just knew his face was burning right now. “Shut up Haley.”

“It was just a question Sebastian.” Said Haley. “Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

Apollyon gently squeezed Sebastian’s hand. “Hey, no need for any of us to get all upset about stuff today. It’s winter star after all.”

Emily nodded in agreement and gave Haley a disapproving look. “He’s right. No need for confrontation today. When he get home we should do some meditation to try and cleans that aura of yours.” At the mention of auras Haley legged it with Emily closely following her as she went on about the benefits of mediation.

Apollyon gently tugged on Sebastian’s hand and smiled a little. “Come on.” He lead Sebastian away from the festival and up to the stone bench by the community center. He dusted the snow off it and sat down. When Sebastian sat next to him he let out a small sigh. “I’m sorry I told Emily we were dating… I didn’t think it would embarrass you.”

“Who said I was embarrassed?”

“Well you looked all uncomfortable and stuff… I didn’t mean to do that…” Apollyon’s happy demeanor quickly slipped away and he had such a distressed look on his face that really surprised Sebastian. “I told you before I haven’t had any serious long term relationships before so I really don’t know when I cross some unspoken boundary.”

“Hey, I’m not mad at you or anything.” He held Apollyon’s hand tightly with both hands. “I was just surprised and I… I’m not used to people other than the people that are really close to me knowing stuff about me. So like, relationships and stuff… I was just surprised Emily knew. You didn’t mess anything up. I swear.”

“… You promise?”

“I promise.”

Apollyon looked a little skeptical at first but readily accepted Sebastian’s answer. “Okay… I’m sorry I got worked up about that. I just don’t want to ever be the cause of your sadness. I want to be one of the many reasons you can smile.”

Now Sebastian was blushing because of how damn sweet and cheesy Apollyon was being. Of course Apollyon made him smile. Why would he think otherwise? “Don’t be dumb. Why wouldn’t you make me happy?”

“… Demons don’t exactly bring happiness to humans.”

Ah, that made sense. If everyone around him was tearing him apart for being a demon and making his own life hell, how could he bring happiness to someone else? Of course that wasn’t true in the slightest and Sebastian had no idea how he could make Apollyon like himself but he could somewhat try.

“I don’t care if you’re a demon. Everything is about perspective. As far as I’m concerned those magic users that killed you were the evil ones in that fight. I don’t care if they say follow Yoba. From what I know about Yoba, Yoba doesn’t approve of the killing of innocent life. That includes self-proclaimed demons.”

“… Not really self-proclaiming here Seb.” Said Apollyon calmly. “I literally came from the Void.”

“Not the point.” Said Sebastian. He poked Apollyon’s cheek. “It doesn’t matter where you came from or what you did before you came to Pelican Town. You’re a good person to me and you make me happy. You just need to relax a little and not worry so much about trying to make me happy all the time. There are gonna be times where you’re gonna upset me and I’m gonna upset you. That shit is normal… Like as long as neither of us deliberately try to hurt the other and apologies when we do that’s okay. Right?”

Apollyon’s expression softened a little and he smiled at Sebastian. “Ah, okay. I see. I’ll try and worry less about that kind of stuff.” He leaned over and gently kissed Sebastian on his cold, slightly chapped lips. “Should we head back now? I think things were just starting to wrap up when we came up here.”

“… Let’s wait up here a little longer. I just like being here with you.”

“Okay. But not too long.” He wrapped his arm Sebastian’s shoulders and pulled him close, so that he could rest his head on his shoulder. “We should at least help your family pack up their table.”

“Eh, fine. If we have to.”

“Yeah… Oh, I have something for you.” He took a small red box out of his pocket and handed it to Sebastian. “Happy winter star Sebastian.”

Sebastian was a little surprised but was happy nonetheless. He opened the box and gasped a little at the perfect frozen tear in it. He took it out and held it up to the sky and marveled at the way it refracted the light. It was beautiful. “Wow… This is… Where did you get it?”

“I was down in the mines and some dust sprites were surrounding it. I managed to get it and thought you’d really like it.”

“I do. Thanks.” He reached into his pockets and took out his own box, giving it to Apollyon. “Well, I was going to give this to you when we got to my place, but since you gave me this… Happy winter star Apollyon.”

Apollyon’s eyes lit up and he quickly opened the box. An ecstatic grin spread across his face as he looked down at the small pink crystal in the box. “Is this a star shard?”

“Yep. I had no idea how expensive those things were.”

“Yeah, they cost an arm and a leg… You didn’t have to spend so much on me.”

“I know, but I wanted to.” He leaned over and kissed Apollyon’s cheek. “You’re worth it.”

Apollyon blushed bright red and weakly tried to hide himself behind the collar of his jacket. “… Thank you… But don’t spend so much money on me next time. You’re gonna make me feel guilty.”

“… You do know how expensive frozen tears are, right?”

“… Not really.”

“Depending on the size and how clear the crystal is it can be with thousands, and you just gave this to me.” Poor Apollyon looked like he was going to pass out in shock. He obviously had no idea how much frozen tears were worth. “Just let me spend money on you.” 

“Fine… Just don’t do it all the time.”

“Don’t worry about that. I won’t be. I don’t have that much money you know.”

“… Fair enough.”


	39. End of Year 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The alternative name for this chapter was gonna be "Junimo New Years Eve party". Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The last day of winter was an exciting day for the Junimos, and it was made even more exciting because of how much stuff the farmer had already given them. They were celebrating by drinking crystal fruit juice out of cups made from caps of acorns. Downing them like shots. They also feasted on snow yams and winter roots.

Many of them were happily bouncing around and talking about all the cool things that happened during the year. Most of it had to do with the farm and what they planned to do to help the farmer when he got around to giving them more gifts.

Yellow happily bounced around as they talked to Red. “I’m gonna fix the mine carts with Brown!” They said proudly. “The farmer just needs to give us a fire quartz and it’s all good.”

“Well once the famer’s gathered all the things I’ll be able to raise his charm and everyone in the town will like him more.” Said Red. They slurped up their crystal fruit juice and slammed the acorn cap onto the ground. “Charm all the people!”

While they were squealing about all the Blue and Purple were engaged in a very intense game of shots as other Junimo’s cheered them on and encouraged their drinking. Some of them were placing bets using cool looking rocks. So far Purple was two or three shots ahead of Blue, but they were quickly closing the gap.

“Drink! Drink! Drink!” Cheered some Junimo.

“Faster! Faster! Faster!” Cheered the others.

After about the tenth shot Blue jumped up and ran screeching towards the door. “Gotta peeeeee!!!”

Though the Junimo’s didn’t really have much in the way of a digestive system seeing as how they were magical spirits they still needed to expel excess materials if they consumed too much in a short amount of time. Still, with Blue running away to pee the winner was unanimous. “Purple wins!”

While there were Junimos doing that there were still more Junimos having their own little rock concert on the desk in the room with the huge vault. Several Junimos had made instruments from random bits and pieces around the town and made little wigs from feathers, grass, and other soft materials. Their look seemed to be inspired by the glam rock genera even if their music just seemed to be more like very upbeat folk music. Either way they had a mosh bit going and White was crowd surfing.

With all this excitement going on the only place to escape the noise was up in the rafters which was where Green was with their slice of snow yam. It tasted earthy and very damp, even though the yam itself was kind of dry. It was weird, but they liked it.

As they hummed happily to themselves Blue climbed up to them and sighed loudly. “Too much crystal fruit juice… Now I have so much energy! What are you doing up here?”

“Resting a little. There’s only so much partying a Junimo can do.” Green offered Blue some yam, but they quickly declined.

“So, what do you think the farmer is gonna do tomorrow?”

“First day of Spring? Probably gonna plants things and get his farm all prepared for stuff.”

“I see… How long do you think it’ll be till the farmer and partner do the thing and get married? Why do humans need to get married anyway? Can’t they just like live together and that’s that? Humans are so weird. I don’t understand that.” The crystal fruit juice was hitting Blue hard. It was chock full of sugar and made Junimo’s super hyper if they drank too much of it.

Green shrugged. “I don’t know. Humans have weird rules and stuff. I think a marriage for humans means that they let everyone know they are going to be mates for a really, really long time and that means they are responsible for each other or something. Weird human rules.”

“Weird. So how long till they get married and junk?”

“Not sure. Maybe a year or two? They already do a lot of stuff together already.”

Blue was practically vibrating right now. “Yeah. Remember when we saw those mice jumping on top of each other that one time and Red said that is what mating is and stuff? Well I went over to the famer’s place a few times and sometimes when I looked in the windows to check where the evil pink monster thing is I saw the farmer and his partner doing the same things but they were really, really loud. That’s normal for humans to do that kind of stuff, right? Right? That’s normal? When humans get together that’s what they do right? Right?”

Green put their hands on Blue and made them sit down. “Calm down Blue. Deep breaths. You need to stop drinking all that crystal fruit juice… And stop spying on the famer when he and his partner are mating. That’s rude.”

“Not my fault they are doing that kind of stuff every time I try to make sure that the pink monster isn’t around!” Blue jumped up and started running along the beam. “Too much energy! Too much energy! Gotta run! Gotta run! Run! Run! Run!” They jumped off the beam and bounced along the ground a few times before they got up and ran off screaming.

Green blinked a few times in surprise, but quickly settled back into what they were doing before. This year had gone pretty well for the Junimos in general. The farmer was getting things done, the scrolls were getting filled in, Pelican Town was slowly coming more alive again and everything was just good in general. They wondered how the Farmer was spending the last day of the year.

***

Apollyon hummed happily as he kissed all along the back of Sebastian’s neck and shoulders. The two of them had been making out a lot more which eventually lead to the two of them having sex Apollyon was both surprised and happy to see Sebastian was more than willing to initiate it. He was a lot more confident after doing it a few times it seemed.

Still, he got tired pretty easily and Apollyon liked to kiss any of the marks he dotted Sebastian’s body with after it was all over. He kind of liked how easy it was to mark him. He kissed across his neck and smiled when Sebastian shuddered.

“Tickles?” He asked.

“A little. Pass me my pants will ya?”

Apollyon relunctantly reached over Sebastian and grabbed his pants off the floor and passed them over. “Looking for your phone?”

“Nah. Gum.” He took out a box and popped a small piece of gum into his mouth.

“… Don’t fall asleep with that in your mouth. You might choke.”

“Noted.”

“Didn’t think you were a big gum chewer.”

“I’m not. It’s nicotine gum. I’m trying to quit smoking.”

Apollyon grinned and held his lover closer, if that was even possible. “That’s so good. I’m proud of you love. How long have you need off them?”

“Almost a week now. It isn’t as bad as I thought, but it’s still early days.”

“Still, a week’s very good and I am proud of you. Any reason you decided to quit?”

Sebastian shrugged and rolled over to face Apollyon. “Well, it’s expensive. I’ll save more money if I don’t spend it on those… Also it was really hard for me to run after you when you became a demon and wouldn’t listen to me. I know I’m not in the best shape but still…”

Apollyon smiled a little and kissed him. “Sorry for making you run after me. But I’m glad you’re not smoking anymore. I get worried about open flames and stuff. Plus you know, it’s kind of poisonous and stuff.”

Sebastian sighed. “I know. I know… So what are you going to do tomorrow?”

“Lots of farming. I already put some sprinklers down and I just have to start tilling the spoil and buying seeds. It’s gonna take all day… Maybe two days…” It was gonna be his second year of farming and he didn’t want to mess this up. He had enough money to buy so many parsnips. He had no idea why the Junimo’s wanted what they called gold star quality parsnips but he was gonna give them that.

“Don’t overwork yourself.” He hummed a little and ran his hands over Apollyon’s chest. “I don’t wanna have to drag your dumb ass to the clinic when you pass out from heat stroke or something.”

Apollyon laughed at that comment. “Really? You would drag me to the clinic?”

“Probably not.”

“Ah, you’re mean.”

“Yep.” He kissed him. “So mean. Meanest boyfriend.”

Apollyon chuckled and lightly ran his fingers over Sebastian’s stomach, earning a strange sound from the man. “… Oh yeah, forgot you’re ticklish.”

“… I will kick you out of the bed if you try.”

“That is a risk I am willing to take.” Apollyon attempted to tickle Sebastian, but he managed to grab his hands and tried to shove him out of bed. Even though it looked like Sebastian was trying, Apollyon didn’t budge one bit. Either Sebastian was way weaker than he thought, or he was using some kind of demon strength. “Okay, I give up. Not gonna tickle you…”

“Good.” Sebastian released his grip on Apollyon.”

“Much.” He quickly started to tickle Sebastian. Unsurprisingly Sebastian started flailing and managed to elbow Apollyon right in the sternum. “Okay. I quit. You win.”

“Asshole.” He panted. “I almost inhaled my gum.”

“I know CPR.”

“…” With a hard shove he pushed Apollyon out of bed. “Stay out in the cold and perish.”

Apollyon pouted and pulled on Sebastian’s hoodie. “Fine, but I am keeping the hoodie. It is comfy and smells like you.”

“… Get back in bed. And take my hoodie off.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“I’ll stay over tonight if you do.”

“… You are a cunning manipulator.” Apollyon quickly took off the hoodie and climbed back into bed with Sebastian. He didn’t mind if Sebastian just wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the day. He just wanted him to stay with him for a little while longer. Maybe he was getting a little clingy. He’d have to work on that. But then again considering the next day was Spring and he’d be working himself to the bone he felt like he could monopolies Sebastian’s time for a few more hours.

“Yep. Worst manipulator in the world.” Sebastian ran his fingers through Apollyon’s hair and smiled happily at him. “How is it that a human is a worse manipulator than a demon?”

Apollyon hummed softly, greatly enjoying any and all physical affection Sebastian was showering on him. “No idea Bastian. Maybe I just want to trust the people I love?” 

“You’re way too cheesy for your own good.”

Apollyon grinned. “Yep. Good thing I like cheese.”

“Dork.”

“Nerd.”


	40. Spring cleaning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thing I hate most about the start of each season is the clean up you need to do along with all the tilling and general maintenance. It's draining and just... Bleh. Would probably be easier with mods, but I don't like using them. I am weird like that I guess. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

One thing that really surprised Apollyon was how quickly the seasons seemed to change in the valley. The snow that once coated their land seemed to have melted away in the blink of an eye and replaced with dirt, grass, rocks, and sticks. He tilled the hell out of the ground and bought so many seeds, mainly parsnips and was in the middle of planting and watering them.

For some reason Abigail decided to follow him back home. Probably to avoid some chores her parents had set out for her. Either way she had made herself comfortable on his porch with Sebastian as they talked and watched Apollyon work.

Apollyon didn’t mind too much, but they could have asked if they could help him or something. It was going to take forever to do all this by himself. Sure Sebastian was probably a little sore from last night and everything, but damn it Abby could have helped him a little. He still had a few fences to put up, junk to clear out, and some hay to collect for his chickens.

Eventually though, once he was done planting his seeds he walked over to the two on the porch and collapsed near them. “Water…” He groaned. “Need refreshments of a H2O nature…” Sebastian sighed a little and went inside to get him something to drink. “Thank you Seb!”

Abigail chuckled a little as she dangled her legs over the edge. “Man, you’re really working yourself to the bone here. Think you’ll make a profit with all those parsnips?”

“I blood better damn it.” Muttered Apollyon as he sat up slowly. “Spend a good chunk of my gold on it.” He pulled off his shirt and wiped the sweat off his face. After this he might jump in the pond to cool off.

Sebastian came back out and gave Apollyon a cup of water that he quickly downed. “Thanks love.”

“No problem. You done yet?”

“Sorry. I still have stuff to do. I’m just taking a breather.”

“… Lame.”

Apollyon shrugged but his attention was quickly drawn to Vincent who ran onto the farm. “Hey Mr Apollyon! Hi Sebastian! Hi Abigail!”

Abigail grinned and waved at him. “Hey Vincent. What are you doing here?”

“Dad came back today!” Said Vincent as he looked over his shoulder. “Mum told him that there was a new farmer in town and he should come introduce himself to you. So mum and dad and Sam and I are coming over. I ran ahead!”

Apollyon really wasn’t expecting guests over so soon. “Alright. Give me second…” He quickly went inside and found an old fold out table along with an assortment of cups and mugs. Hopefully this would be okay. He set it up outside and got Sebastian and Abigail to go inside and actually make some lemonade while he entertained Vincent for a few minutes.

Soon Jodi and Sam showed up with a stranger that he could only assume was Sam and Vincent’s father. He smiled and waved at them. “Hey guys. Nice to see you here. Vincent told me you were coming over.”

Jodi smiled at him. “Ah, sorry about dropping in so suddenly. I know you must be very busy but I mentioned you were here and Vincent really wanted to come over…” 

“Think nothing of it Jodi. You and your family’s always welcome to Hellfire farm.” Apollyon looked at the strange man with them. He had a very stern face and his blond hair was short, spiked, and messy. He looked like he had seen some shit. “Hello sir. I’m Apollyon. It’s very nice to meet you.” He held out his hand to the man.

He quickly gave Apollyon a once over with his eyes, meticulously scrutinizing him before firmly shaking his hand. “Kent. The name’s Kent. So you been here for about a year? How has that shaped up for you?”

“Ah, winter was kind of rough on me, but things should be better this year. Would you guys like something to drink? I have my helpers getting something sorted in the kitchen.”

Abby scoffed as she walked out of the house carrying a jug of lemonade. “Who are you calling helpers? Hey Sam, Jodi, Kent. Good to see you back in one piece.”

Kent nodded at her. “Good to see you too Abigail. You’ve grown up a bit since I last saw you. Your hair’s longer.”

Abby laughed a little and poured Vincent a cup of lemonade. “Here you go squirt.”

“Thank you Abigail.” Chirped the young boy.

Apollyon grinned. “Is Sebastian done yet?”

“Almost, he’s throwing away some of the trash.”

Sam perked up at that. “Sebastian’s here too?”

“Yeah, he stayed the night.”

Sam grinned and winked at him. “Nice.”

Apollyon rolled his eyes and offered Jodi and Kent a drink just as Sebastian came out with the second jug. Sebastian was a little quieter than usual around Jodi and Kent, but Apollyon just chalked that up to Sebastian not being open around people he wasn’t close to. The group talked for a while and Apollyon happily showed Vincent his chickens. He fell in love with Butter and Crispy.

After an hour or two Vincent was getting tired and Kent seemed to be getting a little agitated. Jodi thanked Apollyon for his hospitality. “Thank you so much for doing this on such short notice, especially when you already had people over.”

“No problem Jodi. Really. It’s always a pleasure to have someone come over.” Without really thinking too much about it, he put his arm around Sebastian and smiled. “It can get a bit lonely here on the farm. Well, not really but you get the point.”

Jodi chuckled a little. “I can see that. You two do make a cute couple.”

For the first time that day Kent seemed to have a genuine emotion. That emotion was shock and surprise. “Huh, didn’t know that there were your kind of people in town.”

Apollyon didn’t know if he should take that as offensive or not. So he just decided to bite back as he usually did. “Well I don’t expect to find queer bashers out in such a nice town, and I’m honestly hoping I’m not gonna get proved wrong anytime soon, but well…let’s just see how the year goes huh?”

Once again Kent looked surprised. “Excuse me?”

“Mum, what does queer mean?” Asked Vincent.

“Oh um…” Jodi looked a little flustered at the sudden questioning. “Well dear, queer used to mean strange and different, like back when Mr Lewis was a young man. But now days the word queer is more associated with people that um… I er…” She seemed to struggle with the right words.

Apollyon felt sorry for the woman. “Vincent, queer is a nonspecific term used people that love other people the same way your mum and dad love each other, but they don’t necessarily like girls and boys. It can be a girl liking another girl or a boy liking another boy, like how I like Sebastian. Most people like me and Sebastian don’t use the word queer though because mean people used it to dehumanise and humiliate us.”

Vincent scrunched his nose a little as he absorbed and processed this information. “Oh, okay… I think I get it… So does that mean you and Sebastian are going to get married?”

Sebastian went bright red at that while Sam and Abby tried to contain their laughter. Apollyon just shrugged. “Maybe someday. We’ve only been dating for like a season.”

Satisfied with that answer Vincent held Jodi’s hand. “Can we go home now mum?”

“Yes sweetie. Let’s head home Kent. Will you be coming home with us Sam?”

“I’ll be home later mum.”

Jodie smiled and apologetically at Apollyon and Sebastian before quickly leaving with Vincent and Kent. That was an interesting experience for Apollyon. Now with most of the day gone he was going to have to think about how he was going get everything else done. He could get started on the fences now, but he wouldn’t get it done till tomorrow. It was annoying.

“Hey Sam,” asked Apollyon. “Is your dad a homophobe or was I just an asshole to him for no reason?”

Sam shrugged. “Honestly? Not sure. Dad never said anything about them and well, gay people isn’t really a topic we bring up much in our house.”

“How did your mum know we were a couple anyway?” Asked Sebastian, still embarrassed about Vincent asking about marriage and stuff.

Once again Sam shrugged. “Probably your mum. They both have that fitness class thing they do every Tuesday. Maybe your mum said something?”

Abby laughed. “If that’s the case then the whole town probably knows you two are a thing by now. Those women love to gossip.”

Sebastian let out an exasperated sigh. “Kill me now…”

Apollyon smiled a little and kissed Sebastian’s cheek. “No dying till you’ve taken all this stuff inside.”

“What are you gonna be doing?”

“I have a fence I need to start putting up. I’m a bit behind now.” He picked up a few bits of wood and headed off to set up the fence. Hopefully Sebastian and his friends would help him out while he was away, and not wreck his house.

***

Sebastian and his friends did put everything away like Apollyon had asked which was nice. They also decided to hang out inside since it was cooler and they could sit on the couch. Goblin didn’t seem to like this idea and she death glared the three intruders from the doorway.

However with a little encouragement from Sam, Goblin walked over and sat on his lap. She however continued to glare at Sebastian. Sam chuckled as he patted her. “She really doesn’t like you. Does she?”

“Nope. Good thing I don’t like her either.”

Abby rolled her eyes and took a book out of her bag. “Well don’t be too mean to her Sebastian. You are in her territory after all.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Sam hummed happily to himself as he gave Goblin many pats and scratches, which she seemed to like. “So what are you reading there Abby?”

“Book on supernatural stuff.” She hummed a little as she thumbed through the pages. “I’m on the chapter about ethereal beings from the Yoba plane. I really like the look for the gar-dinner.”

“Gardener?” Asked Sam.

“No, gar-dinner.” She held up her book showing the boys the image of a faceless, naked woman with long flowing hair. “They are meant to be like these things that weed out the bad people on earth for Yoba and eat the darkness out of their hearts. Unfortunately they see everything in black and white and even the smallest bad thing will make them attack you… Most encounters are said to be lethal, but good people have nothing to fear from them.”

Sebastian wondered if these were actually a thing. It stood to reason that if demons existed then ethereal beings should also exist. Apollyon would probably be in trouble if he ever came across one of those. A Gar-dinner probably doesn’t care much for a demon, even if humans have dealt with it. He had enough trouble understanding the demon world, how the heck was he going to understand how things work in the Yoba plane.

“Why are so many demons and angels naked?” Asked Sam. “Like, most of them have their junk out and all that and people wear clothes for warmth and protection but those things? Why?”

Abby shrugged. “Maybe to tempt and shock people or something? Demons and angels don’t have the same sense of shame as us. They probably think wearing human clothes is weird and would much rather just be walking around with their junk swinging everywhere. Tits out, pussy out, dick and balls swishing all over the place.”

Sam snorted. “So are you saying nudists are otherworldly things?”

“… Yes. But if they are sexually promiscuous they are probably a demon and if they are more aloof then they might be an angel. Anything else it’s just a naked human doing naked human things.”

Sam laughed at that again while Sebastian thought of Apollyon. In retrospect maybe those slight sexual advances Apollyon had towards him could have been a warning sign that he wasn’t all human. Then again he kind of just came off as a horny guy. Also he didn’t seem to be the kind of person that would strip off to show as much skin as he possibly could anyway. The most naked Apollyon had been in public was today when he took his shirt off, and that was just because he was trying to cool off while working.

He sighed a little and closed his eyes. Sebastian was still sceptical on most supernatural things but he was willing to change his views when presented with actual evidence. Abby’s ways of identifying a demon or angel were vague at best. He could see how people in the old days could easily persecute anyone and label them a demon.

Suddenly the door opened up and Apollyon walked in. He looked tired as he sat on the ground between Sebastian’s legs, and leaned his head against his thigh. “… So many fences… Still so many to put up…”

Sebastian sighed a little and patted his head. “… Your hair is all damp and sweaty. Have a shower or bath or something.”

“Only if you take it with me.”

Sebastian blushed a little as he heard Sam and Abigail snickering at that comment. “Your bathtub isn’t big enough for two people.”

“I was thinking of jumping in the pond outside.”

“I don’t have board shorts here Apollyon.”

“That’s fine. I was going to skinny dip. We can both do it.”

Sebastian’s blush darkened. “Sam and Abigail are here you idiot. Shut it.”

Apollyon shrugged and looked over at Sam and Abigail. “You two can join us if you want.”

Abby chuckled and shook her head. “No thanks. I’m not interested in seeing anyone’s junk or having anyone seeing my boobs. You guys can have fun though. I won’t stop you boys from doing your thing.”

“You just wanna see us naked or something.” Whined Sam. “Sorry, but I ain’t doing that you secret pervert.”

Abby poked her tongue out. “Rude. I was just saying that because I need to head off soon. Mum and dad will want me back home before sundown.”

“Yeah, I better get home too.” Said Sam. “Mum will want to have us all together for a family dinner and stuff.” So the two of them left while Apollyon and Sebastian waved at them from the porch.

When they were gone Apollyon wrapped an arm around him and sighed happily. “So, do you want to stay tonight? I’d like it if you would.”

“… As much as I’d like to I should go home tonight.” He kissed Apollyon’s cheek. “I probably have a few new projects to complete. Gotta make that money.”

“Fair enough. You go home and make that money. Say hi to your family for me.”

“I will.”


	41. Another day in Pelican Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another day another chapter. Hope you all enjoy it. Kudos and comment if you can :D

It took Apollyon three days to get his farm all up in order, but he was glad he did. He fixed up all the fences and had even started to lay down a few cobble stone paths. He laid down a main one that went all the way from cindersap forest to his house, to the secret path up the back to the main entrance of the farm. He loved it. It felt good to have his home like this.

It was around midday when he was done and so he decided to head down to the beach to relax and collect some sea shells. Along the way he happened to see Kent just standing by the river near his house. He seemed a little out of it.

“…” Cautiously he approached him. “Hey.”

Kent glanced over at him. “Hey.” He turned his attention back to the water.

“…” Apollyon stood quietly next to him for a bit to see if he was going to say anything. It was kind of peaceful just to stand there in the quiet with just the sounds of nature.

“Didn’t mean to upset you the other day.” Said Kent. “I got nothing against you people. I was just surprised at it came out worse than it meant to.”

Apollyon was happy that Kent wasn’t an asshole, but now it was his turn. “Thanks. I didn’t mean to bite your head off there either. I’m just used to being aggressive when I feel like someone’s threatening me. When it comes to a fight or flight response I seem to only have the fight part… I’m more used to strong guys like you wanting to beat me up.”

Kent nodded a little in understanding. “I see. Well I can respect someone who’ll pick a fight with someone who they deem a threat. Even if it is a little dumb.”

He grinned at Kent. “Yeah, I grew up on the streets of Zuzu and got into all manner of dumb fights with people bigger than me. Most of it was either over dumb stuff or people calling me a faggot. That sort of thing.”

“Hmm…” Kent was unreadable at this point. His eyes seemed distant as he continued to stare out into nothingness. “… Did you ever hurt someone so badly that they needed medical attention?”

Apollyon wasn’t too sure where Kent was going with this, but he took a stab in the dark. “Look, we’ve all done things we aren’t too proud of. Me, it was beating up and getting beaten up at a young age. You, it was going to war. I don’t expect you to tell me what happened over there, but I appreciate what you did for everyone here… If you find you can’t sleep you can come to my farm and walk around for a bit. Just stick to the paths okay?” He put his hand on Kent’s shoulder and gently squeezed. 

Kent looked at him and the corners of his mouth gave a slight twitch. Almost looked like was attempting a smile. It was hard for Apollyon to believe that this stoic man really was the father for two overly happy, energetic boys. Then again war changes people. Kent probably saw some horrible shit.

“Thanks for the offer. But I wouldn’t want to bother you.”

“Hey, it wouldn’t be a bother at all. I like people coming over. If you need to walk around during the day or just want to talk to someone or sit next to someone quietly come on over.” Apollyon smiled at him and scratched the back of his head. “I extended the same offer to Shane. When he’s down and needs a change of scenery he comes by and hangs out with my chickens… You’re okay with cats right? I have this hairless cat called Goblin that walks around my property. She’s not as mean as she looks.”

Kent nodded a little. “I might take you up on that offer. You’re a good man Apollyon… So you and Sebastian, how is that working out for you?”

Apollyon shrugged. “It’s going pretty well I think. We’re just like any other loving couple. We’re just both men. If it makes you feel more comfortable I can start walking around in a dress so it looks more normal to you?”

“…”

“Sorry, that’s the fight in me poking through again.”

“It’s okay. I guess I just didn’t word things right.”

Apollyon waved goodbye to Kent and continued down to the beach. It was nice today. Very warm, lots of shells, lots of seagulls. He grinned and got to work collecting clams, cockle’s oysters, and coral. As he went about his foraging he happened to see Sam and Vincent by the water. Sam seemed to just be watching Vincent building a sandcastle.

“… Hey guys.”

Sam looked over at Apollyon and grinned. “Hey there yourself. How’s the farm life?”

“Pretty good. Found some cool stuff on the beach.” He handed Vincent a piece of coral. “Think you could use this to decorate your castle?”

The young boy happily took it. “Thanks Apollyon!” He quickly went about trying to figure out where he was going to put the coral.

While he was preoccupied Apollyon lightly nudged Sam. “How’s things going with your dad?”

Sam’s usually happy demeanor faltered a little. “Ah… It’s been interesting. He’s a lot quieter than he used to be and well… He doesn’t really sleep that much. He walks around a lot. I think he’s going to see Harvey about that… I hope he does…”

“PTSD?”

“Yeah…” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Look, he’s not as bad as I thought he might be, but he needs time to settle back into how things are now. Mum and I are doing our best, but it’s early days yet. Dad will be fine in a few seasons I hope…”

Apollyon nodded. “Well he’s gonna have good days and bad days. You just gotta let him know he’s not alone and you’re always there for him. Encourage him to get help and all that good stuff.”

“Okay… Oh, good news about the band. We have a gig in a few weeks.”

“That’s awesome.”

Sam grinned. “Yeah. You want to come with is when we play? It’s this small indie venue.”

“Nice. So you guys finally got some lyrics? What are you guys called?” He was excited by all this. Sam was really struggling with lyrics for a while and now he had enough to have a few songs. Apollyon was really happy for them and hoped they would succeed.

“Yeah, we kind of defaulted to calling ourselves the Pelicans. Kind of lame, but we like it.”

“Nice. My boyfriend’s in a band now.”

Sam laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. Next time we practice you should come in and listen to us. It’ll be good… So what do you have planned for the rest of Spring?”

“I’m thinking of going to the city to get a suit. Sebastian might want to dance with me at the flower dance this year.” He loved the idea of actually doing something like that as a couple, but he didn’t know if Sebastian would want to. The flower dance was his most hated festival so he probably going to try and get out of it… But he was still going to get a fancy suit damn it.

Sam seemed to like that idea a lot. “That’ll be fun. Abby will finally get her wish and be able to stand to the side and let everyone else dance.”

Apollyon chuckled at that. “That’ll be nice for her… I hope he doesn’t feel weird about dancing with me in front of everyone… That would like, make us officially a couple, right?”

“… Yeah, I guess it would.”

A small blush made its way onto Apollyon’s face. Of course they were already officially a couple, but the whole town would know they were serious if they did that. Sebastian wasn’t the kind of guy that liked stepping out into the spotlight. This was probably going to be the biggest thing the two of them were going to do all year together. It gave him butterflies in his stomach just thinking about it.

“Ah, I should probably head off now. Make me a band shirt for the Pelican’s when you get the chance.”

Sam grinned at that thought. “We’re a little bit away from shirts yet Apollyon. We just got CD’s at the moment.”

Apollyon promised to buy one as he left the beach and headed towards the saloon. There was one person he had to talk to about getting new clothes, and that of course was Emily. If she couldn’t make it she could at least point him in the right directions to get a nice suit.

He walked into the Saloon, happy to see Gus and Emily getting things all ready for the evening. Any minute now Pam would walk in and start on her tab and in a few hours Shane would turn up for something to drink. The last time he was here Gus had informed him that he was not serving a nonalcoholic option. He mainly brought it in for Shane’s benefit, but apparently some of the other patrons liked it too. So that was always nice.

Apollyon took a seat at the bar and waved at Emily. “Hey Emily, can I talk to you for a second?”

She grinned and walked over to him. “What’s up?”

“Do you know where I can get a blue suit? I’ll need one for the flower dance this year.”

Her eyes lit up and she looked overjoyed. “Sure. I know just where to go. There’s this nice place in Zuzu city, we can go there on the weekend. When we get the right one we can bring it back and I can fix it up to make it all unique. Suits are nice but it’s the personal touch that matters.”

Apollyon chuckled a little at that. “What are you gonna do?”

“Oh, I have a few ideas, but I need to see what suit you’re gonna get before I make any major choices… Speaking of choices, anything to eat or drink?”

“Umm, give me a pizza and a pale ale please Em.”

“You got it.”

***

Sebastian had finished his module for today and decided to do some work looking up some things about the Yoba plane. Most religious works about the Yoba plane were vague at best and kind of just talked about an endless garden overseen by Yoba and their angels. It did paint a nice picture, but Sebastian never really liked that idea. The whole idea of dying and working on a farm for the rest of eternity seemed kind of like slavery to him.

However the thing that unsettled him the most was the fact that if the Void was real then the Yoba plane was real by default. That meant Yoba was real, and if that was the case there was a whole lot of ethical and moral questions that needed answering. This also meant he should probably be trying to worship Yoba? He really didn’t know. He’d worry about all that messy stuff later.

He found a few more contemporary works about angels from the Yoba plane. Surprisingly some of them classified Junimo’s as angels. Even going so far as to say they were the spirits of children. It was all kind of strange to him but he kept looking into everything.

From what he saw it was kind of similar to what Colt had told him about demon hierarchy. It was interesting to say the least. Every angel had a purpose and reason for their existence. That would make sense if Yoba really was the one who created them. The Junimos in this context were foragers that would gather materials for building things for farm constructions, there were specific angels that kind of looked like they were on fire that were in charge of planting and watering crops. That seemed like an oxymoron. There were many other weird looking angels with other mundane jobs, like thing that looked like three rings spinning inside each other to achieve flight that were meant to be in charge of orchids. Why?

Eventually he found the Gar-dinner’s that Abigail had shown him in her book earlier that week. These angels were meant to pull out weeds and unwanted plants in the Yoba Plane. That just made Sebastian question why Yoba would allow weeds to grow in the Yoba plane to begin with. He was giving himself a headache.

However, from the small paragraph he read about Gar-dinner’s he happened to find out another thing he didn’t know about them. Apparently, when on earth, their main function and reason for existing was to eat demons.

He didn’t really know what to do with this information. Sure he was more well informed, but he didn’t really think he could do much with this information. Maybe Apollyon would find it interesting? He’d talk to him about it later. Sebastian wondered if Apollyon had any knowledge of the Yoba plane in general. He wasn’t sure. He’d have to ask him about it next time he saw him.


	42. Suits and shoes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone hope you all like this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can :D

Much to Apollyon’s surprise he found himself in some suit store with both Emily and Haley. They younger blond had wanted to come with them to Zuzu city even if it meant things were a little cramped in the front seat of Lewis’s truck. Something Emily borrowed from the older man since it seemed like no one in the town actually had their own car.

So the three of them were jammed in there with Apollyon awkwardly sitting in the middle as Haley took selfies and Emily somehow sang along to purely instrumental music. It was awkward for him, but still kind of enjoyable. Now the sisters were piling him up with suits.

“This one looks good.” Said Haley.

“Ah, but it’s not blue. This one is better.” Emily gave him another one.

Haley rolled her eyes. “I’m just trying to find a style that suits him. We can worry about the colour later.”

Apollyon quickly escaped to the change rooms and started to try on suits. This was the first time he had gotten anything like this for himself. Even going to prom when he was younger he had worn dress pants with a blazer that didn’t quite match, but still looked nice enough. He hadn’t really cared too much about looking good back then but for Sebastian he wanted to look halfway decent with him.

Even though Sebastian hated wearing his suit for the flower dance he had thought Sebastian had looked rather handsome. He wondered what would have happened if he had taken Abigail up on her offer and changed into her dress so that he could take his place at the dance? He had the legs for it. He could rock it. Though Sebastian probably would have flat out refused to stick around and just left if that was the case.

He laughed a little at that thought as he tried on a nice looking suit jacket. He just wished that the damn thing didn’t have the penguin like coat tails. A few others had weird collars or cuffs that made him look and feel weird. He knew that Emily said that she’d go ahead and take care of tailoring to make it unique and perfectly suited to him, but he didn’t want her to change too much.

“You decent in there Apollyon?” Called Emily. 

“Yeah.”

Emily pulled back the curtain and grinned. “That one looks pretty good on you.”

Haley didn’t look as enthused. “Eh, it’s okay… But the shoulders make him look like a linebacker for some gridball team. Not a fan. Maybe something that… Hmmm…” She looked through the suits they had chosen for him and took out a sleek dark purple one. “Here. Try this one.”

He quickly put it on and the girls seemed to share an approving look. “… Do I look better in this?”

“I’m going to go and see if it comes in blue.” Emily quickly walked off to find a sales person to help.

Apollyon looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t really know how he felt about this. He could only guess he looked good enough. He hoped that Sebastian would like how he looked when standing next to him. Maybe he was over thinking this dance now? He wasn’t too sure. He needed to stop overthinking things so much.

“What’s that look for?” Asked Haley.

“Hmm?”

“That sad kind of upset look you got going on. Not a fan of the clothes?”

“Um, well… I just hope I look good. I don’t really wear nice things…”

“You want to look good with Sebastian, huh?”

“… Am I that obvious?”

“Painfully so.” She walked over to him and helped straighten up the jacket. “Look, you have a nice face. Just don’t get it smashed in and that will be fine. Run a comb through your hair, wear a nice black button up shirt under the jacket, shine your dancing shoes, and wear some cologne. Do that and you’ll look fine.”

“… That’s too many instructions, and I forgot I need to get shoes too.”

Haley sighed a little and lightly patted his shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s a good thing that I decided to come along with you two huh? Emily would have completely blanked out and forgotten all about the shoes, huh?”

“Heh, yeah, I guess so.” If he had a choice he probably would have gone ahead and worn the boots he was wearing now. They were comfy, but wouldn’t go with a suit at all.

Emily came back with a blue variant of the suit and beamed at him. “Try this one on.”

Once Apollyon had changed into the suit the two girls shared an approving look. And before he knew it they were out on the streets again but with a new suit in hand. Haley happily lead the two of them to a shoe store so that Apollyon could get his shoes and so that she could look for her own shoes of course.

Thankfully finding shoes for himself was a lot easier than finding the suit. Which basically meant that he sat around while Haley and Emily looked at shoes for themselves. He’d found a nice pair of black shoes that he thought went well with the suit. 

He sat on one of the seats as the girls happily went about their business. He took out his phone to see if anyone had texted him during the day. Not surprisingly he had nothing from Sebastian. It was still too early for him to be up and about doing stuff. He hoped that Sebastian had gotten enough sleep last night and didn’t go crazy with his work and pulled an all nighter. That would have been bad. 

As he looked through his apps he felt a slight chill run up his spine It was, unsettling to say the least. He felt like someone was watching him. Someone’s eyes were definitely on him. Maybe it was the security cameras or just someone working there? He wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. He probably didn’t look like much of a respectable customer. Then again he did have very sticky fingers when he was younger. At least the things took were things like cheap candy. Sometimes school supplies when he was running low. It just left him with this feeling of paranoia when he went into certain places. It was strange.

He glanced over at the store window and almost froze in place. Standing there looking at the store display was possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had amazingly, long thick red hair that cascaded down her back and over her shoulders. She was wearing a thin singlet that showed off the light dusting of freckles on her arms. For a moment she looked up at him and smiled. 

The second their eyes met Apollyon had lost. For better or worse this woman had completely captivated him with those hypnotizing blue eyes. Disregarding any previous thoughts or feelings he got up and walked towards the door. He wanted to talk to this woman. Find out what her name is, who she was, where she lived. He wanted to be with her.

Before he could get to the door however, Emily grabbed his arm and jerked him back to reality. “Where are you going? We need to pay up now.”

“Right I just saw…” He looked out the window and the beautiful woman was gone. “… I thought I saw someone I knew…” He knew that was a lie, he’d never seen her before but there was just something about her.

Emily also looked out the window and shrugged. “Well, let’s pay for our stuff anyway. Then we can get lunch.”

“Actually I don’t feel so good… If you don’t mind I think I’ll just wait in the truck.”

“You sure?” Emily put her hand on his forehead. “Feeling lightheaded or something? Have you had anything to eat or drink since you got up today? If that’s the case you need to eat and drink something.”

Apollyon smiled apologetically and went to pay for his shoes. “I just… I don’t feel too well Emily. You two take your time I’m just going to wait in the truck.”

Without too much protest from the sisters Apollyon was able to make it safely back to the truck and waited for them to get food. Now that he was alone he felt incredibly stupid and guilty. It was just some random woman. He didn’t even know anything about her and here he was just suddenly dropping everything to pursue her. What the hell was wrong with him? He had a boyfriend. A boyfriend he was very much in love with.

The only thing he could think of to as the cause of this was his demon side. He hadn’t been in any serious relationship before and just happily pursued whoever he pleased with no repercussions before. Maybe this was just his natural demon side fighting with his human upbringing? It was all really confusing and distressing to him.

He didn’t like how easily he could be swayed by the look of one random woman that he would never see again. What the hell was wrong with him? He was in a loving relationship with man who loved every part of him and yet here he was looking at other women and for what purpose? He wasn’t even really sure. She was pretty and he wanted her. He could only assume it was for something like sex.

His stress over this was giving him a headache. Maybe he was just overthinking this? It wasn’t like he had actually gone and talked to her. Heck, even if he did talk to her it wasn’t like he had sex with her. If that had happened he couldn’t imagine how distressed Sebastian would have been. If that happened he would sell his farm, track down Gadreel and let him set his stupid body on fire. Was he dramatic? Yes. Did he care? Nope. That’s how he felt right at that moment.

***

Finally, after so many hours and the seemingly endless hoard of bugs popping up all over the place, Sebastian was done. Finished. He was finally done with some weird, crazy, broken webpage and could take a break. It was three in the afternoon.

Normally he would take a smoke break, but not anymore. He was going to chew some gum and head down to Apollyon’s farm. If he wasn’t there he’d just walk around a little and wait for him to come back. No big deal. He’d done it before. Hopefully Apollyon wouldn’t be back covered in cuts and bruises from the mines. While those things didn’t really bother Apollyon that much, Sebastian still worried about him.

When he emerged from the basement Robert perked up a little and smiled at him. “Afternoon Sebby. Heading down to the farm?”

“Yep.”

“That’s good… Um, remind Apollyon that I can upgrade his coop or build him a new barn if he feels like it. He has had the coop for a few seasons now so… just let him know. Okay?”

“… Sure.” Sebastian loved his mum, but did she really need to use him to try and subtly push her wears? 

Maru walked out carrying a few seemingly random bits and pieces of scientific equipment. Sebastian had no idea what it was. “Oh, you’re going down to the farm? Mind of I come with you? I want to collect some soil samples from his farm to compare it to the rest of the valley’s soil. Apollyon’s grown such an interesting variety of things there.”

As much as it annoyed Sebastian to be around Maru, he couldn’t really think of a reason to deny her. “… Let’s get going then.”

He didn’t wait for her to reply before he left and started to walk towards the farm. If Maru stayed outside for the most of it and just left him and Apollyon alone to do what they wanted it would be fine. However he just knew that Maru would ask Apollyon so many questions and then he would follow her around and help her out with whatever soil sample collecting things she wanted to do while he would glare at them from the house.

Maru quickly caught up with him. “I’m really excited to see his farm. How is it going? Mum said he keeps coming in every other day to check how much wood he needs for building a barn. Apparently he’s always a few gold short or a few materials short of something.”

“Yeah. He’s like that.” Sebastian remembered the few times Apollyon had whined to him about not having the things he needed. It was cute how much he pouted as laid on the couch and stared at him with all the grumpiness he could muster. “He really should just write it down.”

Maru nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I tell Harvey the same thing… So um… Are you gonna go ahead and dance with Apollyon at the flower dance this year?”

He frowned a little at that thought. On one hand he hated the flower dance, on the other hand it was Apollyon. “… Maybe. I guess I will if he wants to. I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“You should. You two would look really good together.”

Sebastian shrugged and reached up to pull his cigarette out of his mouth, but quickly realized that he didn’t have one in his mouth. Damn muscle memory. The rest of the walk to the farm was relatively quiet. As soon as he got to the farm he knocked on the door and waited for Apollyon to show up.

When he didn’t, Sebastian just shrugged and let Maru go about her business collecting soil samples while he sat on the steps and waited for Apollyon to show up. Thankfully it didn’t take more than a few minutes before Apollyon turned up with a box of shoes in hand.

“… Hey everyone?”

Sebastian smiled a little at him. “Hey. So where did you go?”

Apollyon shrugged a little and scratched the back of his head. “Ah, well I went to Zuzu city with Emily and Haley.”

“… You went to the city without me?” He felt a little hurt by that. Apollyon knew how much he loved the city and getting out of town.

“Yeah well… I wanted to get a little fashion advice and um… surprise you a little.” He said sheepishly. “I wanted to look nice when the flower dance comes around. It’s a big couple’s thing, right? I haven’t bought any anything fancy like this ever and um, Emily and Haley came with me so I wouldn’t get something awful and look dumb… So I have the shoes and Emily is tailoring my suit to make it look better and stuff.”

“You’re rambling again.”

Apollyon blushed a little. “Sorry… What’s Maru doing?”

Sebastian looked over at her. She was taking samples by the pond. “She’s taking soil samples to see how fertile your farm is or something. You okay with that?”

“Yeah. I don’t mind.” He put the shoe box next to the front door. “I’ll go and help her out a little…”

Before he could walk off Sebastian grabbed hold of his wrist. “Hey… I came over to see you. Don’t you want to see me?”

“Of course I want to see you… I um, I just want to see how Maru is going and help her out a little.” Said Apollyon quietly. “If I help her out then she’ll leave quicker and we can spend more time alone, right?”

“… I guess…”

“Cool. I’ll be back in a moment.” He shrugged himself out of Sebastian’s grip and quickly went over to join Maru. He couldn’t hear what they were talking about but they talked about something and laughed at a joke one of them made. He knew this was going to happen, but he didn’t expect Apollyon to be so enthusiastic about ditching him to help his sister. 

Did something happen to him, or was he just being paranoid? No, Apollyon was just the kind of person that helped out whenever he could. If anything he was just being a little jealous for no reason again. He needed to get that under control. He knew jealousy wasn’t good for any relationship and he had no reason to be.


	43. Sebastian and the Shadow Brute

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there peeps. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Love you lots. Kudos and comment when you can :D

The guilt Apollyon had felt over that random women was quickly faded away after a few days. It was good. He didn’t like how guilty he felt at the time. Sebastian was the most important person in the world to him right now. It made him feel sick to his stomach, but throwng himself into sever back breaking labor had helped him a lot. Though his back did suffer a fair bit and he had to go to the clinic.

Harvey wasn’t very impressed with his actions and scolded him a lot. He even made him wear a back brace for his lower back. Which sucked and meant he couldn’t really do much work around the farm anymore. Also, he couldn’t participate in the egg festival this year. He forgot all about it last year since he was still getting his shit together.

So instead he ended up sitting on a chair while Everyone who wanted to got ready for the egg hunt. Apollyon couldn’t help but pout. He wanted to do that too.

Sebastian seemed to pick up on Apollyon’s distress and gave him some punch. “You okay?”

“I wanted to do the egg hunt thing… But instead all I could do was buy some strawberry seeds… Why does Pierre only sell them now?”

“So he can make the most money I’m guessing?” Suggested Sebastian. He sighed a little and took out his phone. “Do you want to hang out a bit after the festival? We could technically ditch now if you like. No one would really notice us gone.”

“I guess… What did you have in mind?”

Sebastian shrugged. “You’ve been over working yourself lately. Maybe the spa? Should help you relax your muscles. We haven’t been there since like Fall.”

“Sounds good to me.” Apollyon quickly finished his drink and followed Sebastian up to Spa. He still had a locker with his swimsuit and a towel in it so he got changed there while Sebastian went to get his stuff from home.

The water felt nice and warm against his skin and soothed his back a lot. It was nice. Apollyon ended up floating on his back while Sebastian sat to the side near the steps. It was peaceful and relaxing just being there together with him. The only way he’d be even more relaxed was if some of Emily’s mediation music was playing. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into an almost peaceful state.

“… So what’s Yoba like?” Asked Sebastian.

Apollyon frowned a little. “Yoba? Where did that come from?”

“Just been thinking about it a lot lately. Like, since the Void is real then the Yoba plane is real and if the Yoba plane is real the Yoba and the book of Yoba has to be real, right?”

Apollyon contemplated this for a moment. Logically that was all sound. “I guess… But to be perfectly honest I don’t know anything about Yoba or the Yoba plane. I’m just a low level demon and well, Yoba was way before my time. I know nothing about the apart from he being a huge dick to demons.”

“You really don’t know anything about them?”

“Not a thing… You worried about your immortal soul or something?”

“Kind of I guess? I just… I don’t know anymore.”

Apollyon sighed a little and swam over to Sebastian. “Hey, if you’re worried about what is going to happen to your soul when you die, I promise I’ll follow you wherever you go. Granted it’s going to be difficult if you go to the Yoba plane, but I’ll do everything I can to get in there… And if you go to the Void I’ll go back there and protect you.”

Sebastian blushed a little. “Really?”

“Well yeah, that’s just assuming that souls are a real thing. I still have no idea if that’s a thing.”

“Fair enough… Still a nice gesture.” He leaned over and quickly kissed Apollyon on the cheek. “Am I overthinking it?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Maybe. You know, you should talk with Krobus. He’s all into that philosophical stuff.”

“Who’s Krobus?”

“He’s a shadow brute that lives in the sewers.”

“… What?”

“Yeah.” Apollyon smiled a little at the thought of his monster friend. “He lives in the sewers and sells stuff. He’s pretty cool. Next time I go down to see him I’ll take you. You two would probably get along really well.”

“Okay.” Sebastian still seemed to be troubled by his thoughts. 

Apollyon didn’t know how he could make him feel better. “… Would you feel better if we stopped dating? Like dating a demon is probably a big no in the book of Yoba.”

“So is eating uncooked fish. I’m still going to eat sashimi.” Said Sebastian calmly. “I’m not going to break up with you because I’m having this weird crisis of faith and stuff… It’s just a lot for me to think about, okay?”

“… Okay.”

***

The next day Apollyon took Sebastian down to the sewers to meet Krobus. Surprisingly the little shadow brute wasn’t there. Maybe he was nervous since there were two people coming to see him? Maybe he wasn’t there anymore or something? He wasn’t too sure though, the weird pot/vase things were still there.

Sebastian seemed interested, but probably wasn’t a huge fan of the smell of raw sewerage. Actually, Apollyon was surprised he hadn’t keeled over and died from the smell before now. It was a strange thing. It was either his sense of smell was dulled or as a demon the stink of decay and purification didn’t faze him.

“… It smells awful down here.” Muttered Sebastian. “And why did you give me a void egg?”

“Yeah, I know. But shadow brutes don’t have noses… He should be around here somewhere…” Apollyon looked around a little, completely ignoring his question for the time being. “Hey Krobus? Are you here? I have someone I want you to meet. His name is Sebastian and he’s my boyfriend. You can trust him. I swear.”

Everything was quiet for a moment but then a shadow drifted down the slimy wall before manifesting as a solid form in between the weird lamp/vases. Krobus looked skeptically at the two of them. Still he bowed at them. “H-hello.” He said sheepishly.

Apollyon nudged Sebastian and gestured to the egg in his hands. Taking the hint Sebastian offered the egg to the shadow brute. As soon Krobus saw the egg his eyes let up with delight.

“Um…” Muttered Sebastian. “This is for you…” In a flash a quick swirl of black mist consumed the egg and made it vanish from Sebastian’s hands. He jumped a little in shock. “Whoa!”

Krobus smiled. “Thank you so much for the gift. If Apollyon says you are a friend then you are a friend. I am Krobus. I sell magical artifacts to those willing to pay. I also talk philosophy with those that wish to do so. It’s something that Apollyon and I do from time to time.”

Sebastian looked surprised that Krobus was speaking so eloquently with them. That just made Apollyon laugh. While his lover was surprised he leaned over and quickly whispered to Krobus. “He’s come to the realization the since the Void is a thing then so is the Yoba plane and Yoba themselves. You know I’m not that good at that theology stuff, so would you mind?”

Krobus nodded and walked over to Sebastian. “If you wish to talk about the Yoba plane or the Void I’m more than happy to do so. We shadow brutes do enjoy discussing ideas and sharing stories… We are also well versed in hand to hand combat.”

“Huh, alright.”

Apollyon smiled to himself as he watched the two of them talk. Sebastian would talk about something from the book of Yoba and then Krobus would build on that something from the shadow brute’s religious perspective. They really seemed to get into it too. Much more than Apollyon did. Then again he was coming from a place where he thought Yoba was a piece of shit for letting him live like a human but still condemning him to eternity in the Void.

“And so,” said Krobus. “by definition, Yoba isn’t omniscient as Yoba is only shown to have the power to create. Therefore all things made within the world that Yoba has cultivated and grown go to the Yoba plane.”

“Yeah, but what about you know, murderers and rapists that don’t deserve that kind of stuff?”

“A very good question. We believe that if you commit violent acts that do not serve to save yourself and or other people from a violent act equal to or greater than the act that is going to be committed against you, you’re to be absolved of your sins and welcomed into the Yoba plane.” Said Krobus with a small smile on his face. “All those that commit violence in the act of self-gratification are sent to the Void. Apollyon has told me that humans believe in additional rules that bar entry into the Yoba plane?”

“Well, yeah… After the death of the seventh profit there’s like some letters a follower wrote that made it into the book of Yoba. Stuff about sexuality and people’s rolls in society and stuff like that….”

Krobus shrugged. “If it didn’t come straight from a prophet’s mouth or from Yoba themselves we shadow brutes discount those words as manipulations made to push an agenda to gain control over a populous of easily swayed people.”

“… You’re very blunt about that stuff aren’t you?”

“We shadow brutes as a species are technically hermaphrodites. Any and all things that are taught in your book of Yoba about sexuality, sex, gender roles, and who you are allowed to love we find extremely insulting and narrow minded. All things the prophets said for the most part, when they weren’t specifically addressing the importance of keeping pregnant women safe, was pretty much all gender neutral.”

“… Don’t you use male pronouns?”

“Yes, but to be completely honest most humans call us he and him by default because we have no visible breast tissue like your females. Because of this those pronouns are considered gender neutral in our language.”

“Huh… The more you know.”

Apollyon loved how intense the conversation between them was getting. He and Sebastian never really went ahead and had a full on proper discussion about religion, and to be fair, Apollyon didn’t think he could. He just didn’t have the knowledge that others did. He just knew about the complete and utter shit show that was the Void. Even then he only knew about his own small world within the Void.

“Hey Apollyon, you okay?” Asked Sebastian.

Apollyon jumped a little. “Huh what?”

He smiled a little. “We’re done talking now. You want to come or are you gonna stay in here all day?”

“Oh um, yeah. Let’s get going.”

Krobus smiled happily at them. “Please come again whenever you please. I’ll be happy to sell and or talk more about anything to either of you. I quite enjoyed myself during our discussion Sebastian. It made me happy.”

The two of them said goodbye to Krobus and headed out the exit into Cindersap forest. Once they were safely outside Apollyon lightly nudged his side. “So, what do you think of Krobus?”

“I like him. He’s really cool.” Sebastian smiled and held Apollyon’s hand. “Thanks for letting me see him. He’s an interesting guy and he made some things a little clearer.”

“Well that’s good. Go ahead and see him whenever you like, but like don’t go on Friday. He’s not allowed to speak on Friday.”

“Huh, alright.” He checked his phone and frowned a little. “Hey, I need to head over to Sam’s place. We’re having practice today.”

Apollyon smiled and kissed his cheek. “Knock them dead love.”

“You know I will.” Sebastian quickly said goodbye to Apollyon and went on his way.

Apollyon waved goodbye to him and smiled at him, but he still felt kind of strange for some reason. Maybe it was just because he still felt guilty, or maybe because some of the stuff Krobus was talking about. Stuff about only people from this place could go to the Yoba plane. If that was true then when Sebastian eventually passed away then that meant Apollyon… No, he didn’t want to think about it. Not now. He was happy enough right now. He was. Really.


	44. All jazzed up and coming out swinging

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I was writing the last half of this chapter I was listening to a lot of swing and electro swing music. So yeah, y'all can see where I got my inspiration from XD
> 
> Anyway, kudos and comment if you can :D

Apollyon flinched as Emily once again accidently stuck a pin into him as she fitted and hemmed his suit. She had been working on it for several days now and was just putting the finishing touches on it. “Hold still. The more you squirm the more you’re likely to get pricked.”

“Ah, well I just can’t help it. I am a squirmy boy.”

Emily chuckled a little and lightly poked him with another pin. “Sorry.”

“Ow!”

“Sorry.” There was a knock at Emily’s door and she happily called out. “Come on in.”

Her bedroom door opened up and Shane walked in. He seemed a little surprised to see them. “Huh. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Emily’s just fixing it up. I want to look good for the flower dance.” Apollyon smiled brightly at him. “Do you think I look good?”

Emily giggled a little and she finished hemming up his sleeve. “You look amazing.”

“Sebastian’s a lucky guy.” Commented Shane.

The mention of his boyfriend made Apollyon beam with pride. “Yeah. I’m gonna look so good next to him. Maybe I can make the flower dance an alright festival for him, instead of his most hated festival. Think we’ll look good dancing together?”

Shane shrugged. “Who knows? Never seen a guy dancing the girl part at the dance before. Maybe you can convince Evelyn to put something else on the record player? Anyone have any interesting records? Actually, can you even dance Apollyon?”

Apollyon grinned. “Naturally. I can do a mean hokey pokey.”

Emily snorted a little as she took Apollyon’s jacket off and took it to her sewing machine. “You’re going to have to learn a few more dance moves then that.”

“I’ll just have to improvise. No big deal.” Apollyon was confident that as long as he didn’t step on Sebastian’s toes he’d be doing just fine. He just wanted to hold Sebastian’s hands and dance with him in front of everyone. Declaring their love in front of the whole town was such a big thing for him. “You know, I’m glad everyone in town is so open.”

“We’re pretty laid back here.” Said Emily as she started to use her sewing machine. “I think the only people I’ve heard use… let’s say colourful language, are Evelyn and Geroge. Most of it is kind of that; oh you old people with your offensive words that meant something normal in your time. Occasionally though there is a bit of flat out racism. Like I think George dropped the N word once or twice… The Evelyn got mad at him and George got grumpy because he forgot you don’t call people of colour those things.”

Shane nodded in agreement. “Old people are wild. You finished Jas’s dress yet?”

“Oh yeah. It’s on my bed. Tulip pink princess dress with red quartz crystal hem, right?”

“That’s the one.” He walked over and picked up the dress, giving it a good look. “Jas is gonna love this. Thanks Em. I owe you one.”

“No problem. I love jazzing up old clothes.”

Apollyon looked at the dress, tilting his head slightly to see the lights catch the crystals. “New dress for Jas?”

“Kind of,” said Shane. “Jas likes to wear nice dresses for these festivals. Thought I’d try and surprise her by making her flower dance dress just a little more special this year. Trying to make up for not really being a good father figure to her… Also teaching her how to raise chickens.”

Emily grinned. “That’s amazing Shane. Hey, how about this weekend you take Jas somewhere nice? Like… Take her down to the beach? Or borrow Lewis’s truck and take her to the movies out in Zuzu? Or even out to lunch somewhere nice? New year new you, am I right?”

Shane seemed to like that idea. “Yeah. I think I might… I need to give her some more attention and take her to places that she likes.” He couldn’t help but frown at the thought. “I don’t really know anything about her apart from the fact she likes the usual girly stuff and chickens… That’s pretty fucking awful.”

Apollyon couldn’t help but agree with him. “Yeah, that’s kind of shit. But you’re trying really hard to make up for it now, right? Don’t just shower her with gifts, show her you care by spending time with her and listening to her.” He couldn’t help but feel a small sense of nostalgia as he thought of his mum. “When I was younger and my mum couldn’t afford to give me things I didn’t mind at all because she was always there to listen to me when I had problem. It made me so happy to know she cared enough to do that.”

Shane nodded a little as he looked down at the dress. “I’ll do what I can for her. It’ll take a while but I’ll get there.”

“We’re cheering you on Shane.” Said Emily happily. “If you ever need any help just ask.”

“Thanks.” He put the dress in the bag and saw himself out.

When he was gone Apollyon turned his attention back to Emily. “So, is it done yet?”

“I’ll have it done soon. Tell you what, I’ll swing by your place on the day and it’ll be all good and ready. Sound good to you.”

“Sounds perfect.” Apollyon made his leave and headed back to his farm. He was so excited about the dance. Like he had told Sebastian and his friends last year he had gone to plenty of school dances growing up but he had never actually danced with anyone before. It made him feel happy and excited.

***

True to Emily’s word she was over at Apollyon’s place and helping him with his suit after he went about his farm chores. She made him get into his suit and then she started to fix up his hair to make him look good. Apollyon appreciated the subtle hints of punk and gothic fashion that inspired her alterations.

“You did really well.” Said Apollyon. “Are you almost done with my hair? I don’t want to be late.”

She hummed a little and ran her fingers through Apollyon’s hair one more time. “Just give me two seconds and… done. You look perfect.”

Apollyon quickly looked himself over in the mirror and grinned. “Okay, let’s get going.”

The two walked down to the field and Apollyon could hardly contain his excitement. He had been looking forward to this all year. He couldn’t wait and Emily could tell. “You’re really excited about this aren’t you?”

“Well yeah, is it that obvious?”

“If you were any more excited you might start jumping around like a rabbit.”

“Ah, oh well. I can’t help it. I couldn’t dance last year because everyone had a partner or didn’t want to dance with me… Hopefully Sebastian doesn’t have second thoughts about this…”

Emily frowned, looking very confused. “Why would he have second thoughts? Are you two going through a rough patch?”

“What? No. He just doesn’t like the flower dance… And now that we’re going out he might not want to dance…”

“I see…” Suddenly Emily’s eyes lit up. “Well, if that happens you can dance with me and Shane. Sure it might not be a traditional looking dance, but who cares? This is the first time an open gay couple is going to be at this dance. Time to shake things up! Change the traditions! Topple gender roles!”

“Won’t Haley be mad if there’s like no flower queen if you topple the system so easily?”

“… She’ll get over it.”

The two of them continued to talk and laugh until they got to the field. From there Emily walked off to talk to other people and Apollyon scanned the area looking for his boyfriend. Thankfully he was easy to spot. He was standing by the buffet table with Abigail and Sam. Thankfully Sebastian was wearing that suit he hated so much. That had to mean we was at least okay with dancing, right?

He walked over to the group and waved happily. “Hey guys. Get here early?” He casually wrapped his arm around Sebastian’s waist and subtly pulled him closer so their hips were touching. Thankfully, much to Apollyon’s relief Sebastian returned the gesture and even one upped him by kissing his cheek.

“We helped set up.” Said Sebastian. “I had to wake up early for this.”

“Sorry love.” Said Apollyon. “You should have let me know and I would have helped out.”

Sam shrugged. “Nah man. It’s cool. You have a farm to get all sorted out before you come here. No big deal.”

“Yeah.” Said Abby. “But at least I just had to help Gus bring over the food. Also, nice suit Apollyon. You clean up nice.”

He smiled brightly at her. “Thanks. So you’re not wearing a dress today?”

“Don’t have to. Sebastian grew some balls and now you two are dating, therefore I do not have to dance, and so I do not have to wear a stupid dress.” She seemed way too pleased with herself. I am going to stuff my face and eat all those parsnip chips and chilli dipping sauce.”

“I thought you hated vegetables?” Questioned Apollyon.

“Well yeah, but have you tried Gus’s parsnip chips? They are like crinkle cut, oven baked and dusted with this amazing five spice seasoning. Plus the chilli dip gives it this amazing sweet and spicy kick that’ll blow your mind. Super drippy though, so eat it after you dance. Me on the other hand I’ll eat as much as I like. I don’t give a fuck if it drips all over my shirt.”

***

Sebastian had to admit that Apollyon looked damn fine. He had no idea if Emily deliberately tailored Apollyon’s suit to make it hug him in all the right spots but damn it did so well. Too well in fact. Abby commenting on his looks only confirmed that for him. 

At least Apollyon was happy, super happy. It reminded him a lot more of Sam when they were younger and still in school. The blond always got super hyped up and excited when the holidays were coming up. Just like how his boyfriend was super excited now. Was dancing with him in front of the whole town really that exciting for him? 

He didn’t understand that. The dance was dumb. If he didn’t live with his parents he wouldn’t come down here for this stupid thing ever. He’d just stay in bed and sleep. Staying in bed was way more interesting than this. It would be even better if Apollyon was in that bed with him. He’d have to discuss that with him later if he wanted to make that a reality in the near future.

He watched Vincent and Jas run by to the buffet table as they looked for something delicious and possibly full of sugar to eat. “Where are the cupcakes?” Muttered Vincent.

“They have to be around here somewhere…” Said Jas.

Apollyon seemed to take notice of the kids and went over to the table, grabbing two butterfly cupcakes for the kids. “Are these what you two are after?”

The kids grinned and quickly took the confectionary from him. “Thanks Mr Apollyon!” Said Vincent.

“Thank you.” Said Jas.

Apollyon grinned at the two of them. “No problem. Hey, that dress is very nice Jas. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.”

The little girl giggled and did a little spin. “Thank you. Uncle Shane got it for me. It’s really pretty isn’t it?”

“It sure is. It looks like a real princess dress.”

Jas blushed a little. “Thank you. Uncle Shane said the same thing.”

“Ah, well you two go and enjoy yourselves.”

“We will.” The two children quickly ran off to eat their food and play their games.

Abby sighed a little. “That dress is so cute…”

Sam chuckled. “Thought you didn’t like dresses?”

Abby looked at him like he was an idiot. “If you can look at a bikini clad pinup girl and appreciate how they look without wanting to wear a bikini or be a woman I think I can appreciate how nice a dress looks on Jas.”

“… Point taken.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes a little at his friend’s antics and waited for the dance to finally start. Thankfully for him it didn’t take too long before Lewis called everyone who was going to dance to find their partners for the dance. He almost reluctantly tugged at Apollyon’s sleeve. “Come on. You want to dance with me, right?”

Apollyon’s eyes lit up with delight. “Of course I do… Do you not want to dance this year? We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just kind of assumed that you’d want to since we haven’t done it before and um…” He quickly seemed to lose his confidence, which was a huge shock to Sebastian. Apollyon was so happy a few seconds ago. “I really should have asked if you wanted to dance this year…”

“… You’re over thinking things again.” Said Sebastian calmly. He held Apollyon’s hand and took him over to the dance floor where people were already gathering. “I’m not that complicated. Just because I don’t like the flower dance doesn’t mean I’m not going to dance with you. It’s important to you and it’s not gonna kill us to do it together.” 

Despite saying that he still felt like he’d die of embarrassment. Dancing with Abigail was bad enough. The two of them were destined to be together for the damn thing and under the watchful eyes of the grownups, and it sucked. He felt like the grownups were just forcing the younger, unmarried people together. Did they really think that the two of them were made to be just because they dressed similarly and were friends? He hated it. It was embarrassing.

So now that he was dancing with someone he liked the embarrassment was tripled. He felt like the eyes of everyone else were on the both of them. No, not Apollyon. Just him. Their eyes were on him. Everyone liked Apollyon well enough. He went around and delivered gifts for people and completed things on the notice board. Hell, he even gave him an eggplant once because he wanted to throw something into the side of the mountain. If anyone was going to think something was wrong with their relationship it wasn’t going to be because of the bright and sunny Apollyon. It would be because of him. He’d be the problem.

Apollyon noticed his nervousness and gently squeezed Sebastian’s hands. “Hey, just dance with me like you were dancing with Abigail. I’m more than happy to dance the girl part. Let’s have fun. Okay?”

He was thankful for Apollyon’s compassion. “Okay.” The two of them danced the usual dance that everyone always danced each year and that went well enough in his opinion. But once that was over Emily quickly raced over to the gramophone and put on a new record. Evelyn chuckled a little at the younger girl’s enthusiasm and happily played something that sounded like… Swing music?

It seemed to surprise the other bachelors and bachelorettes at the sudden change in music, but everyone quickly seemed to adapt. Elliot and Leah were surprisingly really good at it and were a stand out among the group. Harvey was also pretty good at it along with Maru. Sam and Penny did a lot of spins and twirls. Alex and Haley were into doing more outlandish movements in time with the beat which suited them just fine. Emily tried to do big energy movements with Shane but it kind of looked like he was trying hard to keep up with her.

It was way different then what Sebastian was used to and he froze up a little, unsure what to do. Luckily for him Apollyon seemed to know what he was doing. “Don’t think too much about it Seb. Just move to the beat and try not to step on my feet.”

***

As it was the flower dance many of the Junimos were off doing their own celebrations. But a few of them were hanging around the human’s festival and once the dance started some of them started throwing handfuls of petals into the air when the music started. They thought it looked pretty as the petals fluttered through the air and over the dancers.

Red tried pegging a handful of tulip petals at a few people, but it didn’t work. Still they had fun. “Eat some petals you happy people.”

Purple sat by them and tossed some more petals into the air. “Good to see that the farmer is dancing with their partner. What’s next on the human mating ritual thing?”

“Get married and have babies. That’s the next part.” Said Red. They attempted to peg more flower petals at people. “Take that old people!”

“… Do you really think you should be pegging petals at people?”

“Yes. It is fun.”

“… Red, you are weird.”


	45. Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I like drama so prepare for some drama. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Almost too soon Sam and his band was ready to play their first gig. According to Sam it was at this local music festival just an hour or two outside of Zuzu city in some big field. Abby was just as excited as Sam was and was more than enthusiastic when it came to moving the drum set to the truck. They had managed to get Lewis’s permission to use his truck and only because Apollyon was going with them. It was nice to be the responsible one for once.

Sam was giddy with excitement. “I can’t believe it. We actually have a gig. Someone pinch me!” Abigail punched his arm. “Ow! I said pinch.”

“I thought you said punch. Did that sound like punch to you two?”

Apollyon and Sebastian agreed with her and continued to load things onto the truck. Sam was salty about that but he quickly got over it when the four of them crammed themselves in. For some out of the four of them only Abigail could drive a manual truck, so she got stuck with driving duties.

On the road Sam was allowed to choose the music while Sebastian was in charge of snacks. In other words Sam was blasting some old rock and roll music from the 80s and Sebastian horded all the food. Which in retrospect Apollyon was happy about because that meant he could have snacks too. Too bad that was a lie. As it turned out, Sebastian was a huge snack hoarder and slapped Apollyon’s hand away whenever he tried to grab some snacks.

“Come on Sebby.” Whined Apollyon. “I want some chippies…”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “You sir do not deserve these chicken chips if you call them chippies.”

“Why do you do these things to me babe? Why?” Whined Apollyon.

Sam laughed at their antics. “Dude, any time we go on a road trip Sebastian never lets anyone take his food. You need to pack your own.”

“Why is he in charge of food if he doesn’t share?”

Abigail rolled her eyes. “His hoodie pocket might look small but he once lost his watch, a pen and a notebook for three seasons and found it in his hoodie. Just let him stuff his face and then take the snacks. That’s what we do.”

Apollyon pouted and rested his chin on Sebastian’s shoulder. “… If you give me that pack of gummie worms I know you have I’ll do that thing that makes you see stars.”

Sebastian went bright red and quickly handed him the gummies. “Shut up and just eat them.”

“Success!”

Sam frowned a little and nudged Apollyon. “Hey, if you promise to do more crazy shit with him in bed do you think you can score me some chips?”

“Get me some red liquorish.” Pipped up Abigail.

Apollyon frowned a little. “Wait, isn’t this kind of prostitution? Am I whoring myself out for candy and chips?”

Sebastian patted his boyfriend’s head. “Yes Apollyon. Yes you are.”

“… Well considering some of the crazy shit I’ve done, not a bad deal.” Apollyon happily ate his gummies and the rest of the trip went smoothly. By the time they got to the festival things had only just started to get underway with people coming in and food vendors getting their stalls. The group set up on the stage and checked their equipment to see if it was working.

Sam grinned as he plated a few chords. “This is so exciting. I can’t believe this is actually happening guys. A real gig in front of real people.”

Abby chuckled at his excitement as she set up her symbols and adjusted her snare. “Yeah, it is pretty awesome. We might be able to get some fans. Did you remember to bring CDs?”

“Of course.” Said Sam. Is the synth all good Seb?”

Sebastian played a few notes. “Yep.”

Apollyon stood back as he watched them set up. A few people were gathering around the stage, clearly interested in what they were going to play. “When are you guys going to start playing?”

“In about twenty.” Said Sam. “You gonna head down to watch us?”

“Of course.” Said Apollyon with a grin. “I’m your number one fan. I especially like the wizard on the synth. I’d totally blow him in some grungy bathroom stall when he’s done with his set like some groupie slut. Boy has some magic fingers.”

Sebastian blushed and rolled his eyes. Thankfully he had a slight smile on his face. “Shut up and get off the stage you dork.”

He winked and shot his boyfriend some finger guns. “You got it sexy. See you after the show.” He headed off the stage and waited around off to the side while more people filed into the festival. He was thrilled to see how many people were showing up to this. He wasn’t sure how excited Sebastian was about being in this event, but Sam seemed to be super enthusiastic about it. 

He wondered what would happen if their band did get big and like went on tour. If that happened then that meant Sebastian would leave the valley for months. That thought made him sad. No more going over to his house to see him. No more waking up to him. No more sex either. That sucked. It wasn’t like he could go and tour with them either. He had a farm to look after. But as long as Sebastian was happy he couldn’t be sad, right? 

He shouldn’t be thinking those kinds of depressing thoughts right now. In reality it was highly unlikely they would get picked up by a producer today. They would probably have to go and do a few more shows and get a dedicated fanbase. Apollyon just remembered fanbases were a thing. And where there were fans that would enjoy their music there would be the extreme crazies that wanted to fuck the band mamebers. Sure Apillyon realised Sebastian was sexy as hell, but he didn’t like the idea of other people thinking about him that way.

Thankfully before he could stress out too much about those kinds of he heard Sam on the microphone. He sounded a little nervous as he introduced them to everyone as The Pelicans. Seconds later music started to play and damn, they had gotten good since the last time Apollyon had heard them. They were playing some kind of alternative rock pop sort of thing. It sounded like something you would hear in some dance club but it was very distinctly theirs.

Lots of people were dancing and grooving to their sound. Sam had strung together some vague lyrics about an underwater city by a coral reef or something. It didn’t make much sense but it sounded cool. He liked it. It made him bob around a little like a person in a mosh pit in a concert.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted something that looked vaguely like red hair. In fact, it was red hair, a huge swirly mess of brilliant red hair that looked way too familiar. That woman he saw in Zuzu city that one time. It was her there was no mistaking it. He recognised her hair, her smile, and the freckles that dusted her shoulders. Today she was wearing a green tank top and denim shorts so short they almost looked like underwear painted to her milky white skin. The way she smiled and danced made his heart hammer in his chest.

She noticed him staring at her and winked at him and gestured for him to come closer. Captivated by her gorgeous blue eyes any and all doubts he had in his mind melted away and he approached her. She smiled at him and danced with him. No words needed to be said between them as their movements and bodies did all the talking.

Apollyon hardly noticed as the songs changed, all his attention was on her. Nothing else seemed to matter anymore. He liked her. He wanted her, and she was giving him all these signals that she wanted him too. He was okay with this. She could have him however she wanted.

Suddenly she reached out and held his hand, giving him lustful eyes. Without hesitation Apollyon linked his fingers with her and let her lead him away to some part of the festival. It was in some corner close to the stage but completely out of sight of everyone else.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled Apollyon close for a kiss. As if his body was working on autopilot Apollyon kissed back and pressed her up against the nearest wall. She moaned happily as the kiss quickly became more heated and passionate. She raised one of her legs slightly to wrap around Apollyon’s hip and he in turn lifted her up by her thighs so she could wrap both her legs around him properly.

She giggled a little when he did so and quickly readjusted herself. By doing so Apollyon got a good look at her cleavage threw the collar of her tank top. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and he thought he saw the glimpse of a rose tattoo on one of her breasts. That was hot.

She ran her fingers through Apollyon’s hair, tilting his head back before leaning down and kissing him again. Her beautiful hair completely enveloped them like a veil. This was perfect. All that he wanted at this moment was her, whoever this mystery woman was he wanted her. He wanted every part of her and wanted to give her every part of him that she wanted. At this moment she could ask him to do anything and he would willingly do it. She had him completely wrapped around her little finger and they both knew it. And to be honest, Apollyon didn’t give a damn.

“What the fuck?!”

Apollyon pulled back from her and stared at Sebastian. Suddenly he was drawn out of his romanticised thoughts and was slapped with the cold, harsh reality of his actions. It felt like someone had doused him in ice water and ripped his guts out at the same time. The guilt he felt was instant, but that feeling was compounded tenfold when he saw how distressed Sebastian was.

The girl looked confused. “Hmm? What’s going on?”

“I’m his boyfriend.” Snapped Sebastian.

At the mention of their relationship the girl pushed Apollyon away from her. “Ew gross! Get away from me you cheating fuckboi.” She shot Sebastian an apologetic look. “I am so sorry. If he had said he was with someone I wouldn’t have done that… Sorry.” She quickly ran off, obviously not interested in dealing with this kind of drama.

“…” Apollyon wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He didn’t understand how he could just suddenly flip a switch in his mind and so willingly cheat on him. “Sebastian, I’m so sorry.”

Sebastian looked pissed. He didn’t move from where he was standing but he looked like he would snap and hit him at any moment. “Just shut up. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why the fuck would you do something like that?”

His throat went dry and his mouth felt like it was filled with cotton. No answer would satisfy Sebastian or make him feel better about what he had just seen. He didn’t even understand what the hell was wrong with himself. “I-I don’t know. I just… My mind went blank and I kind of just went on instinct and everything just-”

“Instinct?” Snapped Sebastian in disgust. “Fucking instinct? What the fuck is wrong with you? Is this some bullshit demon instinct thing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?” If it really was some demon instinct of his to want to fuck whoever he finds physically attractive then that was going to be a serious problem. And that terrified him. Was he really so animalistic?

Sebastian clenched his fists. If at all possible, he looked angrier than before. “That’s fucking bullshit. Fucking bullshit. How could you just…” He stopped himself and took a long, slow, deep breath. Sebastian turned away from him. “I can’t look at you right now… Just go away. We’ll meet back at the truck when this music festival thing is over.”

Apollyon reached out for him but stopped himself. He felt sick. Riddled with guilt. “… I’m sorry.” Without really thinking Apollyon ran off as far away as he could. He fucked up so badly. 

By the time he had stopped running he was near the entrance of the festival. He felt like shit. Everything was just too natural for him from his thoughts to his own movements. He sat down by the side of the road with his head in his hands. Was this how he had always acted since he became sexually active but just didn’t notice? Why would he notice before? He never cared about long term relationships and just bedded whoever he was attracted to in the moment.

If this was what he really was deep down inside then he shouldn’t be with Sebastian. He was going to end up hurting him badly one day. Even worse than he had right now. He wouldn’t be able to bare it if he was going to be the reason behind Sebastian’s misery. 

“I hate this.” He muttered. “I fucking hate this. I’m a fucking bastard. I hate being a demon. All I do is make everyone I care about miserable. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this…”

***

Sebastian felt sick. He couldn’t believe that Apollyon was cheating on him and with a girl. Fuck he knew Apollyon was attracted to women too but that just made it hurt more when he caught him with her. Was he getting tired with him already? He thought they had a good relationship. Was he not feminine enough? Did Apollyon want someone with breasts or a vagina? That wasn’t fair. How could he do that to him?

Was it really some demon thing to want to fuck anyone they mildly fancied? If that was so then what did that say about their relationship? Did Apollyon only care about having sex and used normal human emotions to get to it when people resisted hook-ups? Did Apollyon consider him just a hook-up? That thought made him feel sick and used.

“Hey, you okay Seb?” Asked Sam. “Where’s Apollyon?”

Sebastian clenched his jaw at the mention of his name. “I don’t want to talk about that fucker.” He wanted to kick something. Unfortunately the closest thing he could kick was an amp. 

“Whoa, what did he do?” Asked Abigail.

“… After our set I went somewhere quiet because yeah, I was a little overwhelmed and I found Apollyon making out with some woman. Their hands were all over each other and he just… I’m fucking pissed at him.”

Sam and Abigail looked shocked. They didn’t look like they could believe what Sebastian was saying. But seeing the distress on Sebastian’s face any reluctance to believe him was gone. “That son of a bitch!” Snapped Abigail. “How the fuck could he do that to you? I’m going to cut off his dick and run him over!”

“He seemed like such a decent guy too…” Said Sam. “Well fuck. This is going to make the ride home awkward…”

“Fuck him. I’m not driving him back to town.” Stated Abigail harshly. “He can walk back for all I care. I’m not going to be nice to some cheating fuck.”

While Abigail ranted on about Apollyon being a jerk Sam went to comfort Sebastian. “Hey, if you want you can just hang out by the truck while we pack things up… We’ll figure out what to do about Apollyon later.”

“… Thanks.” He trudged back to the truck with his head hanging low. He still didn’t understand why or how Apollyon could do something like that to him. He could still vividly see those two in his mind just all over each other. At least she had the common decency to push him away the second she found out he had a boyfriend.

When he got to the parking lot he happened to run into the red headed woman again. She looked extremely embarrassed and sheepish. “… Hi.”

“Hey…”

“I’m still really sorry about… I’m not some home wrecking skank. Honest. He never said that he was seeing someone.” She seemed really upset about the whole thing.

Now Sebastian could have and probably should have been mad at her too, but he was too upset at Apollyon right now. Sure she was stupid for making out with some random guy, but that was it. “Whatever… I don’t really care. He’s a piece of shit.”

She smiled sympathetically at him. “I see, so he’s that kind of a guy… This isn’t the first time he’s done this to you?”

“What? No I just… Look, I don’t think badly of you. I’m mad at my boyfriend.”

She nodded a little, looking rather sad. “I understand how you feel… I was with someone for a while and they were… Well they didn’t disclose that they wanted an open relationship. It was quite terrible finding out the hard way. Guess that’s why I prefer hook-ups now. The decent ones always say they are with someone so I back off… I’m sorry I’m rambling. Tell me about yourself. What do you do besides play the synth?”

Sebastian shrugged a little as he continued to walk to the truck. “I do freelance programming work. Mostly simple website stuff. Sometimes huge companies. I read a lot of sci-fi too.”

As he talked she nodded along, taking in every word he said carefully. “I see… So how did you and your current boyfriend meet?”

“He’s a farmer in our town… He was nice to me…” He wasn’t sure why he was spilling all this out to her. He normally wasn’t so open to strangers. If anything he was more closed off from strangers, but there was just something about her voice that calmed him a little and made him talk. It was kind of strange really, but he wasn’t questioning it. 

“I see… people like Apollyon tend to manipulate people however they see fit.”

“I guess, but… I didn’t tell you his name…”

She just ignored him. “Such a sad and strange thing though isn’t it? People always seem to get easily tricked by things like that… Then you know, sometimes someone will come in and try to remove such an annoying problem but then they get caught in the act and their prey runs off without so much as leaving a proper trail to follow.”

“… What?” He felt like he had missed a whole conversation to get to this point. Looking at her now, her whole demeanour and way that she carried herself seemed to have instantly changed. She was walking confidently and had an almost annoyed look on her face.

“It’s so annoying. I am so hungry too and tired of devouring the measly crumbs of corrupted desire in the hearts of man.” She said calmly. “The Void essence I can absorb from humans is pathetic. I might as well be licking the cheese off of an empty pizza box. Just seeing him I knew that this chaos demon was just pulsing with Void essence. It’s practically running through his veins…” She glared at him, clearly annoyed. “Do you have any idea how evil you are? I practically had him in my mouth and you ripped him away from me. Two more seconds and I could have started feeding.”

Okay, it was clear to Sebastian at this moment that this person clearly knew who Apollyon was and what he was, but he also knew what the Wizard had been saying. “Yeah, okay. I don’t know who you are or why you want to eat Apollyon or whatever it is you want to do, but Apollyon’s not technically a demon. Some fancy wizards gave him the title of pagan god. That means you’re not allowed to hurt him, so go away.”

At that the woman started laughing. She looked extremely amused now. “I see even the children of Yoba whom know of the darkness are still fools. Child of Yoba, the rules those magic users, as they have been called, only make rules for others of their kind. Truly, their kind has no power over one such as I.” As she spoke her skin started to develop a darker, more greenish hue and her hair started to coil tightly and turn dark green, resembling something akin to vines or roots. 

“Fuck… What are you?”

She smiled sweetly at him and spoke, though her mouth wasn’t moving anymore. “Child of Yoba, there is no need for such foul language. I am an angel. I have lived here for eons and cared for humanity as per Yoba’s instructions. I am a Gar-dinner.” 

She was no longer standing on the ground but hovering above it with her toes several inches off the ground. Her red hair was no longer red but a thick mass of vines and roots that undulated as though she was underwater. She slowly blinked at him as her face slowly shifted and morphed until the only thing taking up her face was a giant eyeball.

If Sebastian could he would have started running but he couldn’t. Staring into this being’s eye was hypnotising and gave him an indescribable sense of calm. His mind went blank and he just stood there feeling slightly dizzy and unfocused.

“Now, sleep.” She poked his forehead and Sebastian fell backwards, passing out long before he hit the ground.


	46. Junkyard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jfc I just realised the other day I have logged over 890 hours on Stardew Valley since I got it back in like what? 2017? 2016? Whenever it first came out. I think I have a problem... Oh well. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

It was starting to get dark and Apollyon wandered back to the truck. He hoped that he could possibly get a ride back to Pelican Town with the group because he didn’t know the bus route. Unsurprisingly to him the truck and everyone else was gone. He’d fucked up way too badly, didn’t he? None of them were going to want anything to do with him eventually got back to town.

Maybe he could just go home, finish the offerings to the Junimos, sell the farm and live a life as a transient drifter? Maybe Linus could give him a few points on that. He’d just go from town to town, live on the outskirts, enjoy his quiet life, and then just lie down and let some Yoba fanatic kill him when he was done with everything. Living as a human was difficult.

He sighed a little as he looked at the empty parking spot. They hated him. Soon everyone in town would know too. He was a horrible person. A disgrace. Cheating on your spouse as easily as breathing was a grotesque act.

He crouched down a little and groaned in frustration. He needed to ask the Wizard if he could do something to permanently purge his demon existence from his body. That was possible right? It wasn’t some weird thing he was hoping could happen but of course, would not happen at all because the world hated him and his very existence? He didn’t know. 

As Apollyon wallowed in self-pity and hatred a strange scent subtly drifted into his nose. It was kind of sweet and kind of metallic in a way, but it had a hint of something else too, something that made his skin crawl a little. 

Curious as to what on earth it was Apollyon lightly scratched around in the dirt until he came across a strange looking little flower. Its stem was weird and ropy looking more like little fibers twisted together and the petals were a very sick looking purple. He reached out to touch it, recoiling when the pollen, or maybe it was the nectar, touched and burned his skin. There was only one thing he could think of that could hurt him like that.

“Why is there some Yoba plane flower thing here?” He took a tissue out of his pocket and pulled the flower out of the ground. Its roots flailed and twisted around for a few moments before stopping dead. It was strange.

He continued to scratch around in the soft dirt near where the flower was found and discovered something disturbing. He found three cards wrapped in a piece of paper. The paper was written in a dark green ink and had only two words on it; Find Them. The cars inside were Abigail’s driver’s license, Sam’s photo ID for work, and Sebastian’s motorcycle license.

Putting two and two together Apollyon could only guess that some crazy fanatic or fanatics had decided to kidnap them to lure him out. This was more than a little annoying. How the hell was he meant to find them? They had the damn truck. How the hell was he supposed to find them?

Confused and frustrated Apollyon dropped the Yoba plane flower and grinded it under his foot. He had to find them soon. Who knew what some Yoba nut job would do to them? Sam and Abby didn’t even know anything about him being a demon. What would happen to them if they couldn’t get any useful information from them? As he wondered what the heck he was going to do he couldn’t help but notice that the crushed up flower flittered away from under his foot and drifted away in a direction that was opposed to the breeze.

“… Fucking magic flower Yoba bullshit.” As annoyed as he was, Apollyon seemed to have very little choice but to follow this strange flower into whatever trap this was going to turn out to be.

***

Sebastian felt groggy and kind of sick. He didn’t feel good at all and didn’t really remember too much about what had just happened to him. All he really remembered was Apollyon making out with some red haired woman and she… She wasn’t human was she?

He looked around trying to get his eyes to focus on where on earth he was right now. He was, outside. He could see the stars in the sky and feel the dirt under his body. Looking around he could see cars. Lots of crushed and abandoned cars. Was he in a junk yard? He had to be. Where else would he be.

He tried to sit up but has arms and legs were tied together with something. It sure as hell wasn’t a rope or anything like that. It was a weird substance that kind of looked like flesh but more fibrous. Maybe it was kind of fungus? He wasn’t sure, but whatever it was it was strong. He couldn’t struggle free.

Something heavy fell next to him and he jumped a little. It was Sam’s body. He was unconscious and had streaks of blood running down his cheeks like tears, but otherwise seemed fine. He too had that weird growth wrapped around his arms and legs. “Shit. Sam, come on man, wake up.” 

Sebastian looked around trying to see if Abby was around anywhere and he froze when he saw her. That supposed angel that had taken him was crouched over unmoving body. Her face was completely covered by the creatures strange vine hair. From what he could see Abby’s body was twitching and convulsing under the angel, like she was having a seizure or something. Whatever it was doing to her it was probably the same thing that it had done to Sam.

“Fuck.” Sebastian looked around and tried to see if he could find something he could use to free himself, like some broken glass or some sharp metal. How was it that there was nothing like that around him? He was in a junk yard for crying out loud.

Suddenly Abigail was dropped next to him and she looked just as dull and lifeless as Sam with blood running down her pale cheeks. Swallowing thickly he looked up to see the angel looking down at him with that impossibly large eye that took up her entire face. Her hair seemed to move independently on its own and her skin looked like it was covered in some green plant material and patches of bark.

“You’re awake now. Good.” It had no mouth to speak with so it appeared that this thing was using some kind of psychic magic to speak directly into his mind. It was unnerving.

“What did you do to them?” He asked, doing his best to keep the fear out of his voice.

They looked over at Sam and Abby before shrugging half-heartedly. “As a Gar-dinner I feed off of Void essence. These two happened to stumble upon us as I searched for the keys to your vehicle. Turns out the girl had it and I thought I might as well get as much Void essence out of this feeding as possible. But alas, all together there was hardly enough essence to fill a thimble.”

“… Did you kill them?” He could see them breathing so he knew that wasn’t the case but he nodded confirmation.

“The Void essence I could extracted from them wouldn’t be nearly enough to kill them. It was just crumbs to me and I am still mad at you.” She sat on Sebastian’s chest and glared at him. “That demon was brimming with Void essence… I’m so tired of sucking up what crumbs I can get. Even when I get lucky and come across the worse dregs of humanity all I can get is a small mouthful at best…”

Sebastian gulped a little and tried to wriggle out from under her, but it was no use. Despite her feeling light enough for him to push her away but she wasn’t budging. She just stayed staring down at him while her hair swirled independently around her head.

“But you, I can smell it on you. You’ve been corrupted by that demon. You have a lot more than just the average amount of Void essence flowing in you just because of constant contact.” She grabbed hold of his face and harshly turned him so she could get a good look at him. “You look scared… Sorry, but this is nothing personal. I’m just hungry and your void essence is what I need to live. Now try not to squirm too much. This is going to hurt.”

The Gar-dinner leaned over him, enveloping them in a curtain of her own hair. Sebastian watched in horror as this thing’s eyelashes elongated and started to squirm as they slowly drifted down towards his face. The tips of these unnatural tendrils were barbed and he could only tell because they were so close to his eyes. Did the Gar-dinner plan to force the tendrils into his eyes?

“No! G-Get off me!” He screamed. “Get away from me! No! No! No!”

Suddenly the Gar-dinner was launched off him and landed with a crash into a nearby car. Sebastian watched in shock as he saw Apollyon rush over to the angel and started to beat the shit out of it with a heavy pipe sending green blood flying everywhere. “Mother fucking Yoba fuck!” He snapped. “Stay the fuck away from them! You fucking fuck! Mother fucker! Fucking die! Die! Die! Die! You fucking piece of shit! Fuck Yoba!” He paused for a moment to catch his breath before slamming the pipe into it a few more times. “Fuck you.”

Once he was done beating it he went over to Sebastian who shook his head and gestured to Sam and Abby. “Check them first.”

Apollyon nodded and quickly checked the vital signs of the passed out people, also going as far as opening their eyelids to see if there was any eye damage. “… They look okay. Their eyes are a little blood shot but they should be fine.” He found a sharp piece of metal and started to cut them free from their strange bindings. He managed to free Sam and Abigail before starting on Sebastian. “What the heck happened when I was gone?”

“You know that red head you were sucking face with?”

Apollyon flinched a little at that comment. “Yeah?”

“Well turns out she’s actually an angel from the Yoba plane and wants to suck the Void essence from us and since you’re a demon she pretty much wants to kill you.”

Apollyon was about halfway through cutting the bindings from Sebastian’s hands when he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at him in disbelief. “I’m sorry, but did you just say that the red head I kissed was an angel and not some crazy Yoba fanatic that wants to kill me?”

“Yeah? Why?”

“… I haven’t gotten into a fight with an angel before.” 

The sound of movement from the car the angel landed on made both men look over in shock. The Gar-dinner peeled themselves off the metal and violently flailed their arms and legs around, snapping them back into place. Though it seemed to have limited success.

Apollyon gulped a little and gave Sebastian the sharp bit of metal. “Um here. Try not to cuts yourself too badly with this… I’m gonna try and do something. Shit.” He quickly scrambled to his feet and called over to the creature. “Hey! Fuck you ya Yoba angel piece of shit! You made me walk two and a half hours to get to this shitty place! You better put up a decent fight!” The Gar-dinner stared at Apollyon for a moment before it collapsed to the ground and started to scuttle along the ground towards him like some kind of demented insect. “OH FUCK!” Apollyon turned and ran as fast as he could and disappeared into the maze of cars.

All alone Sebastian fumbled to get a good grip on the metal as he tried to cut himself free. It took a fair bit of effort and he did cut his fingers a few times but he did manage to get free after a while. Now the question was what could he do? Abigail and Sam were uncontious. He didn’t even know where the truck was so he couldn’t drag them somewhere safe and get the hell out of there. Then again he had no idea how to work a damn manual and would probably end up ripping the gear box out if he tried. 

Maybe he should try and find a phone? He still had his phone on himself, right? He quickly patted himself down and found nothing. He quickly did the same with both Sam and Abigail but found nothing. No keys. No phones. They were fucked. He hopped Apollyon was having better luck.

***

Apollyon was not having better luck. He had never gone and faced off against an actual angel of Yoba before. He hadn’t even heard of actual celestial beings from the Yoba plane actually living on earth in the present day like he was. Heck, it was just his luck that he happened to run into an angel and try to beat it to death with a pipe. He didn’t fight angels. He didn’t even fight other demons when he was in the Void. Not for lack of wanting to, but because he was too small and insignificant to make any meaningful impact. It would be like one ant trying to fight an anteater. 

“Can’t we just talk about this?!” Called Apollyon. The only response that he got was the Gar-dinner throwing a side view mirror clipping his ear as it whizzed past his head. “I’m sure we can come to some kind of agreement!”

As he passed by a barrel of scraps Apollyon reached out and grabbed something. It looked like half of a rusty bumper. Better than nothing but it would have been nice to have a spear or something like that. Why were those things never around? It wasn’t fair.

Suddenly the angel’s hair wrapped around his ankle and yanked him to the ground and dragged him over where she pounced on him and wrestled him to the ground. Her voice echoed loudly in his head. It was like someone was belting a church bell over and over in his head. “Finally. Nothing personal but I am hungry. I need to eat. Void essence from humans is nothing compared to the Void essence from a demon.”

Apollyon was quickly developing a raging migraine just from her projecting her voice directly into his skull. “Fucking fuck… So none of this shit was coincidence huh?”

She giggled a little. “Well meeting you at that shoe store was coincidence. If that woman you were with hadn’t have drawn you away I would have taken you to some alleyway and drained you completely. I would have done it at the concert earlier too if we hadn’t been interrupted. I don’t like feeding around people. I get a little skittish.”

Apollyon struggled against the vines that grabbed hold of his arms and held him down. “Ah, so you were using some fucked up magic against me to make me cheat on my boyfriend? You fucking piece of shit.” He just needed to wiggle his arm free just enough so he could stab her with the bumper.

“I use every weapon I have to catch my food.” She leaned in close to his face and her eyelashes slowly started to extend and elongate towards his eyeballs. “Now hold still I’m hungry.”

Staring into her eye for just a moment he instantly felt a great sense of calm and his body relaxed. That was his mistake because the second he did the barbed tendrils that were her eyelashes penetrated the whites of his eyes like thousands of tiny needles.

In that split second that moment of indescribable torturous pain was enough to break him free of his relaxed state and he managed to stab the angel in the side with the rusty bumper. Unfortunately for him, by doing this the Gar-dinner jerked their head back and ended unintentionally partially blinding him.

He stumbled to his feet and lunged at her, stabbing the bumper further through her and pinning her to the ground. For good measure he grabbed hold of some random car part and pulled it down on top of her. Hopefully he could come up with some kind of plan to deal with thing soon. As he stumbled around he ended up bumping into some equipment. It took a little time for him to focus but he eventually figured out what it was. A scrap yard magnet.

“… That’ll work.” His idea was crazy and really stupid, but it should work. He just needed Sebastian to pull it off. He was going to get Sebastian to crush him with a car.


	47. Crushed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go my lovelies. Kudos and comment when you can and enjoy. I love and appreciate everyone of you that are still reading this and have left a comment :D

Sebastian managed to drag his friend’s bodies over to a slightly more sheltered area away from being in the middle of some damn junk yard. Unsure of what to do he slapped Sam, trying to wake him up but he got nothing. “Fucking fuck. Come on Sam, wake up. Please wake up…” Getting no response he tried the same thing with Abby but he got nothing out of her.

At this point he had no idea what to do. Suddenly an earsplitting shriek rang out through the junk yard. He really hoped that Apollyon wasn’t as injured as he sounded, if that was him. Yoba, he had no idea what he needed to do or could do at this point in time. Maybe there was some sort of security building near the main gate of this place? That sounded logical right? From there he could probably find a phone and get help that way, maybe. He just needed to do something.

He got up and cautiously got up and took one last look at his friends before picking up the pipe Apollyon was previously wielding for some kind of protection. Sebastian then attempted to navigate the maze of cars, quietly preying and hoping that no one would suddenly appear near him, especially the Gar-dinner. As he walked around he could hear the sound of some machine starting up and gears grinding for a few minutes before it suddenly stopped.

Suddenly something stumbled out in front of him and out of panic Sebastian swung out and struck Apollyon in the shoulder. “Shit! Sorry!”

Apollyon winced and swore under his breath, clutching and the gash in his shoulder. “It’s fine. I kind of deserve that… Didn’t think you were that close… Mother fucker… What are you doing?”

“I was going to see if I can find a phone and… What happened to your eyes?” They were all bloodshot and horrible looking. Much worse than when he almost died in the mines the previous year.

He shrugged a little. “Can’t be helped. That bitch tried to suck the Void essence out of my eyes. Now I’m kind of blind.”

“Shit. What are we going to do?”

Apollyon smiled a little and held Sebastian’s hand. “I just need you to come with me and press a button.” He gently tugged Sebastian along and started speaking in hushed tones. “I figured that this shitty human body wouldn’t hold up too well in a one on one fight with an angel, but if I get my demon form back that would help…”

Sebastian gulped a little and nervously squeezed Apollyon’s hand. “What is it you want me to do exactly?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to it.

“You’re still mad at me right? Well now you can get all that aggression out by dropping a car on me.”

“What?!”

“Shush, not so loud.” Whispered Apollyon. He led him towards an electric magnet that had a car perfectly placed in its magnetic pull. “Just head on up there and push the button when I’m under it.”

Sebastian looked up at the magnet then back at Apollyon. “… Look, I’m pissed at you but I really don’t think I can do that…”

Apollyon smiled a little and hugged him. “I know Bastian… Just, please do this for me. I’m just doing this to help you and your friends. I don’t know how long it’ll be till that angel gets up and comes after me again.” Sebastian still didn’t want to hurt him like that. Despite being partially blind Apollyon would tell Sebastian was reluctant, but he didn’t seem like he really knew why. “Hey, take this…” 

He too off this weird looking necklace he had around his neck and gave it to him. Sebastian noticed that Apollyon had been wearing it a lot lately and just assumed it was some weird thing the Junimos gave him. Since it was made of clay and had a Junimo drawn on it.

“Remember the pendant the Wizard gave you?” Asked Apollyon. “I got a Junimo to fish it out and I covered it in wax and clay so I could keep it on me. If you think I’m becoming too dangerous or something crack open the clay and force that pendent on me. It’ll hurt like a bitch, but your safety is more important.”

“Apollyon…”

The sudden and violent sound of metal thrashing and crashing made both men jump. Apollyon gulped and shoved Sebastian towards the magnet. “Hurry up and hit the button. We don’t have time to argue.”

Sebastian gulped a little and quickly climbed into the driver’s seat and looked down at the buttons. Much to his surprise it looked like a panel or two had been ripped up with someone’s hands just to get to the wires underneath. This was probably Apollyon’s doing. He had to hotwire this thing to start it without the keys anyway. He looked down at his boyfriend struggle around a little as he looked up at the sky to find the car.

Once he was in place he gave Sebastian a thumb’s up, actually smiling at him. Sebastian couldn’t understand how Apollyon could look at him like that when he was about to kill him. Taking a deep breath Sebastian closed his eyes and pushed the button, releasing the car, crushing Apollyon.

It’s quiet for a moment and Sebastian looked up. From where he was sitting he could see a small pool of blood starting to form under it. It made him feel sick and kind of twisted. Who on earth would willingly kill their boyfriend? Then again this situation was very twisted.

The Gar-dinner crawled over the top of a pile of cars and made a beeline for Apollyon’s body. It made several animalistic sounds as it desperately pushed against the car, trying to get to the body underneath. Failing to do that it started scooping up handfuls of bloody dirt, shoving their vines into it to absorb the Void essence inside it. Feeding off the blood slowly started to calm it down a little. She was finally getting the food that she craved so much.

Sebastian gulped a little and tried to quietly get away from the magnet and escape back into the maze of cars, but his foot kicked the loose panel. Instantly the angel looked over at him and her voice echoed in his head. 

“Food.” The angel leapt at him and landed on the front window. “Come here! I’m still hungry!” She tried to reach in and grab him and Sebastian tried to kick her away in a panic while screaming at her to fuck off. Not that it mattered much. She had a predatory look in her eye that looked at him like he was pizza or something. “I need to eat! Let me eat you already! You’re just cattle! Stop trying to fight back you pathetic cow!”

The sounds of metal getting ripped apart made both pause for a moment and look over at the car. Claws had ripped it open down the center and a humanoid shape pulled itself out, gasping for air as it hunched forward. It took a few deep breaths and two large wings burst from his back. No, they weren’t wings they looked like some kind of organs, possibly lungs from the way seemed to move when he breathed. He looked completely different from the last time he became a demon.

While Sebastian was stunned by the transformation the Gar-dinner seemed delighted. She lunged at him, going back to ignoring Sebastian completely. As she had put it, a human was a crumb compared to a demon. But the second she landed on the car Apollyon was gone. He was above her, hovering. She continued to try and attack him but he always seemed just one step ahead of her. He was faster, smarter, more in control of his actions. Was this what he could do in his demon form when he wasn’t completely eviscerated?

***

Things were vastly different for Apollyon now. He had never been in a demonic form that had wings before, but like a butterfly or moth he instinctively knew how to move in the air. It was almost a blessing that a car seat went through his back at the point of impact. He effortlessly glided around as the Gar-dinner desperately swiped at him and tried to bring him down. She was desperate and hungry. She was a wild animal.

He felt strange about her current condition. She was just hungry and needed Void essence to live. For once someone wasn’t killing him just because of who he was. She needed him a he was for who he was. It made a strange feeling well up inside him. He hadn’t felt this way before. Sure Sebastian needed him, but he only really needed his human self. Had he approached Sebastian in a form like this he would never have accepted him, but ethereal beings and other demons could accept all of him and would probably prefer him looking like a demon.

Maybe if this angel wasn’t mad with hunger they could have been friends or at least have some kind of respect for one another? He wasn’t sure. But he certinally had respect for her at the moment. Her movements, though increasingly animalistic at this point had an otherworldly grace about them. He noticed that whenever she would touch the ground it was only ever with the tips of her fingers or the tips of her toes. Never a flat palm or foot.

Apollyon spread his wings and took flight making sure he was out of reach of the angel and smiled a little at her. “I don’t want to fight you. Is there some way we can work this out?”

She crouched on the ground and stared up at him, her voice echoing painfully in his head. “No matter what you do or say I will eat you.” Her vine hair suddenly plunged into the ground before the burst under him. The sudden movement surprised Apollyon and as such he didn’t move out of the way in time and got skewered with several vines. He felt several of them wrap around his spine and yanked it out.

He flailed in shock and crashed back to the ground. “Fuck! Fucking fuck! You bitch!” He screeched out in pain and writhed. He did not expect her to do that. Now what on earth was he meant to do without a spine? He watched in mild surprise as the angel wrap their vines around the spine and seemed to consume it. Apollyon growled at her and used whatever strength he had left to reach other and grab hold of his bones. “GIVE THAT BACK!”

Without much warning the spine in his hand suddenly curled and slashed the vines away. She reeled back in shock as her decapitated vines. Pleased with her shock he swung his arm around and slammed the bones back into place. To be honest he was surprised that this was a thing he could do, but then again he did rebuild himself from a pile of meat and gristle. 

She continued to look shocked and confused at the sudden attack as the vine cutoffs wriggled around like worms on the ground. “… I keep forgetting how strong demons are… It has been so long since I’ve fought one of your kind. I almost forgot what if feels like. Yoba has truly blessed me on this night.”

Talk about Yoba disgusted him. He got up and shamelessly kicked her in the face. “Shut up about Yoba. Why the fuck are you even here? If Yoba cared you wouldn’t be here, would you? You’d be in the Yoba plane.”

The angel flailed a little as she was knocked onto her back but quickly got up. “Yoba placed us Gar-dinners where to eat demons… Many of us have fulfilled their duties and have gone back to the Yoba plane.”

Apollyon growled and lunged at her. “Then go and be with them.” Without thinking he unhinged his jaw wide enough to wrap around her skull and he bit down with a sickening crunch. Her body went limp and she decapitated corpse fell to the ground with a soft thud. It took a few moments but her body quickly lost colour and turned to a pile of dust that easily flittered away in the wind.

***

Throughout this whole ordeal Sebastian had been glued to his seat. Apollyon had emerged from a car wreck like some kind of demonic butterfly and turned the Gar-dinner into dust with one bite after they ripped out his spine.

“…” Clutching the clay pendant Sebastian slowly got out of his seat and walked over to Apollyon. “Hey…”

Apollyon looked over at him and nodded a little. “Hey.”

“Oh, you can speak? That’s a little different from last time.”

“Yeah, well last time I had my brain turned into mashed potatoes. Worst I got this time was probably a fractured skull or something.” He sighed a little and stretched his wings. “So… what now?”

Sebastian shrugged. “I think they mentioned that they used Lewis’s truck to get us here. It’s probably around somewhere. We should probably look for that and get Abby and Sam inside… Do you think they’ve gone blind too?”

“No clue. I can only assume they’ll be okay.”

“Okay… By the way are those your lungs?”

Apollyon looked at his wing and shrugged. “I think so. They kind of move a little when I breathe right?” He stretched a little and slowly the two fleshy wing organs folded up and retreated back into his body. From the way he flinched it looked painful. “… So, now we need to find the truck, right? Can you drive stick?”

“Nope. You?”

“I don’t have a driver’s licence.”

“… Ah, right.”

“Yeah…” Sebastian sighed a little. “We need to get back to Abby and Sam… How long do you think it’ll be until you get back to normal?”

“No idea. Maybe a day or two?”

Sebastian nodded a little and started to walk back to where he left his friends. As they walked he glanced over at Apollyon, he still looked demonic with his inhuman claws, crocodile teeth poking past his lips, and completely yellow eyes. That wasn’t even counting the fact his clothes were all torn up and he was all bloodied. It then dawned on him. He was probably going to have to tell them about Apollyon. How the heck would they react to knowing that he was a demon? They were going to freak out about this.

“… Hey, what’s wrong Seb?” Asked Apollyon.

“I just… I don’t know how Sam and Abigail are going to react to all of th-”

His sentence was cut short when a hubcap whizzed through the air and struck Apollyon in the face, making a rather loud dong sound. Apollyon staggered back in surprise. Sebastian was surprised to, even more so when Sam and Abigail appeared and started to pull him away.

“Holy shit!” Said Abby in a panic. “Holy fucking shit! What the fuck is that thing?!”

“Who cares?” Asked Sam. “We need to get the fuck out of here!”

Sebastian struggled against them and tried to pull himself free. “Hey! Calm down you guys! Would you just let me go for a second damn it!” He pulled himself away from them. “Calm down for just two seconds. Right now, we’re safe. Nothing’s going to hurt us.”

“For fucks sake Sebastian shut the fuck up and run!” Snapped Abby.

“No you shut up!” He yelled at her. “That’s Apollyon!” Sam and Abigail stopped dead in their tracks and looked between the two of them with stunned looks on their faces. Sebastian sighed a little. “Look, Here’s the short version; Apollyon is a demon. His name literally translates to destroyer. But he’s just a demon that happens to like farming and wants supernatural shit to leave him alone. People who follow Yoba tend to try and kill him because he’s a demon. Now you’re all caught up.”

There was a moment of silence before Sam spoke up. “So… does this mean Apollyon has a normal human dick of like some weird barbed, knotted, corkscrew looking demon dick?”

“… What?”

Abby suddenly broke into a grin and started laughing. “Oh Yoba, you’re a demon fucker!”

Sebastian blushed. “Shut up Abby.”

Apollyon snickered a little at that. “Well she isn’t wrong you know.”

Abby glared and pointed accusingly at him. “Hey! I’m still mad at you! Don’t think just because you’re a demon you can get away with making out with some random bitch and breaking Sebastian’s little emo heart!”

“We’re gonna talk about it when we get back to town.” Whined Apollyon. “… But are you two okay?”

“Fuck no.” Said Sam. “Okay, so we go to find Sebastian and get attacked by some freaking looking Cyclops thing, then we wake up in a junk yard with dried blood from our eyes on our faces, then we see you looking like you’re gonna attack Sebastian, and then we find out you’re a demon. An actual demon! What the fuck?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Yeah, sorry about the demon thing…”

“I have so many questions for you about the whole demon thing.” Said Abby. So the group walked through the junk yard as Abby shot Apollyon a bunch of questions about being a demon as they looked for a way out. After about ten minutes or so Sam found the truck by the front gate. It still had the keys in the ignition and their phones had been tossed onto the front seat. The group got in and started the long drive back to Pelican Town.

Abby continued to ask him questions and Apollyon answered back as best he could. Eventually Sam chimed in with his own questions. To Sebastian it just seemed like the basic things that he had asked him before when he first found about the whole demon thing.

They got back to Pelican town a bit before eleven and Apollyon quickly got out first so no one would see him. “Hey, like before you guys drive off can I talk to Sebastian alone for a second?”

Before Sam or Abigail could protest Sebastian quickly slipped out of the truck and followed Apollyon to boarder of his farm. “… What do you want?”

Apollyon smiled nervously at him. “Hey um… I know I really messed up earlier when I kissed that person and I know you have no reason to believe me, but she pretty much said she was using some mind powers on me to make me want her like that… Honestly I don’t even know if I believe that… and like, with all the supernatural shit that happens around me it might actually be best if we didn’t see each other for a while… You and your friends were all in danger because of me.”

Sebastian shrugged a little and kicked at the dirt. “Well yeah I guess, but if you weren’t there then we could have all been fucked. Like, what would she have done with us if you didn’t show up and kill her?”

“… I don’t know.”

“Me either…” He reached out and took Apollyon’s hand. “Look, we’ll talk about this tomorrow or something, yeah? I… I’m still upset about what you did and you’re right. I don’t think I believe that it was all because of whatever psychic powers she used on you… So I just… I don’t know.”

“The last thing I want is to hurt.” Said Apollyon quietly. He looked ashamed of himself. “I… I love you Sebastian and I want you to be happy no matter what. I broke me to know I was the reason you were so upset, and just after you played an awesome set too… I’m sorry, and I know no matter what I say I can’t even begin to express how I really feel.”

“You’re rambling again.”

“… I’m sorry.” He rubbed his eyes a little and made an upset sound. “It seems as though I don’t have tear ducts at the moment…”

“…” Sebastian quickly leaned over and kissed his cheek. “It’s okay. Just go and sleep. You deserve it. We’ll talk more tomorrow. Promise.”

“… Okay. Hope your friends aren’t too freaked out about me.”

“They’re your friends too you know.”

“…” Apollyon smiled a little at that. “Yeah. Night Sebastian. Get home safe, okay?”

“I will.” He walked back to the truck and got in. He glanced over at his friends and frowned. “What?”

“I can’t believe you’re fucking a demon.” Said Abigail.

“Shut up about that.”

“You fucked a demon Seb.” Said Abigail calmly. “Is there any chance you got some kind of demon STI? Got some burning fire crotch down there? Some little demon crabs maybe?”

Sebastian blushed and lightly shoved Sam into her. “Shut up Abby. Neither of us have those kinds of things. So calm the fuck down… So what do you guys think of Apollyon now?”

Abby shrugged. “He’s interesting. Still a piece of shit, but interesting. What do you think Sam?”

The blond shrugged. He hadn’t really have much to say about anything apart for the few questions he had asked Apollyon. “I don’t know. I just… I have no idea. Apart from making out with that girl he seems to be a decent enough guy. I think. I just don’t know anymore. Today has been awesome, but also very fucked up… Are you still going to go out with him?”

Sebastian shrugged. “Honestly? I have no idea anymore. I still like him and everything but I just… If angels and Yoba fanatics go crazy and try to kill him things always seem to go a little nuts. I don’t know if I want to be a part of that…”


	48. Anxious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone here's another chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Kudos and comment when you can :D

Apollyon worked extremely hard the next day just on his farm. Even though he hadn’t any weeds or debris or anything to clear out, or even enough gold or raw materials to make anything else. So for most of the day he ended up hoeing the same small patch of earth over and over again. He was nervous about Sebastian coming over and talking to him.

Hell he was more than nervous. Apollyon was scared. He knew being around him was dangerous and Sebastian’s life had been threatened a few times. Heck his friends had been attacked too. He wouldn’t blame him if he no longer wanted anything to do with him. He wouldn’t want anything to do with himself.

He stood by his grandfather’s shrine and cleared out some leaves and bits of twigs that blew in there. Apollyon made a small whimpering noise and put his hand on the shrine. “Oh grandpa… I have no idea what to do anymore. I’m a terrible human being and cause Sebastian nothing but trouble and as a demon I’m worse… I wish you were here. Mum always said you were much better at summoning magic than her…”

He still remembered when he was little and his grandpa would summon small demons to help him plant and harvest large crops. Then again it could have just been shadow brutes that he traded void eggs with. He wasn’t sure. It was a long time ago. Sometimes when Apollyon woke up from a nightmare his grandpa would summon a little elemental fire sprite to dance in the fireplace. He was good at things like that. Maybe if he was here he’d be able to help him. He didn’t know how but he knew he would have something.

“Should I just abandon this place and find somewhere new to live? The forests are nice and quiet these days I guess… I could just live off things like berries and hazelnuts. It works for Linus, right?” He laughed nervously and sat down in front of the shrine. He felt miserable. He knew he was blowing things out of proportion again. Things weren’t going to be that bad, but if Sebastian and him broke up then things would be too awkward for him to stay here. He wanted to pull his teeth out.

He heard footsteps approaching him, two sets of footsteps to be exact. He turned his head to see none other than Abigail and Sam. He was surprised and very confused, but glad it was them. He still looked extremely demonic and probably wouldn’t have been approached by anyone else.

Apollyon gave them a small nod of acknowledgement and went back to tending to the shrine. He knew that they were going to come over to talk to him if they really wanted to. They stopped a fair bit away from him and hesitated to get any closer.

“… So um, what are you doing?” Asked Sam.

“I’m cleaning up my grandpa’s shrine.” Said Apollyon calmly. “So why are you two here? Surely it wasn’t just to talk about this, right? And I already told you all about the stuff you asked me about. So why are you here? Are you going to tell me to leave Sebastian alone or something?”

Abby shrugged. “Can you really blame us if that’s our motivations? Sebastian’s our friend. We’ve known him for years and years. We don’t want anything to happen to him and well you… You’re actually a demon.”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Yeah, like come on man. You’re a cool guy and all but you’re a demon. What are we meant to do? What can we do? You’re a freaking demon. You look like that. You could probably kill everyone in town without a second thought. You’re a monster. You’ve probably been gifted with like, a billion other demon powers that we have no idea about.”

Though that was true it still hurt. “Gifted? You two don’t know the meaning of the word…” He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on his knees. “You guys don’t notice that you are gifted just by being humans. You’re allowed to be anything you want to be and your words are law on this plane of existence. You are absolute predators. You have no natural enemies that hunt you down and even supernatural beings like me are instantly your prey just by existing.” 

He was filled with self-loathing. What else could he be filled with now? No matter what actions he took they would never be seen as selfless or innocent or out of an act of love. To everyone he would just be acting for a selfish reason. In the end he was a disgusting creature that deserved the worst of humanity. How or why should humanity show him kindness when all his actions were a self-serving act?

“You are allowed to be good or evil. I’m not. I’m only allowed to be evil with only the most abhorrent and deprived intentions at heart… I didn’t become a demon any more than the two of you chose to be born human. But that never mattered did it? Demons are always inherently evil. And in the end no matter what I say or do I’ll end up hurting Sebastian because I’m not human. I never will be… So I just need to cut off all ties with him so he can be happy, right? I’m going to be the cause of all his misery so I need to get away from him?”

The pair were shocked by what he said. “Um… You’ve really thought about this haven’t you?” Asked Abby.

Apollyon laughed a little. “Of course I have. Why wouldn’t I? If I had never been brought into this world my mum would have been much better off… Eventually I’ll probably end up cursing this farm and maybe even Pelican Town just by being here…”

He suddenly found Abigail throwing her arms around him, almost tackling him down to the ground. “Shut up you idiot. We don’t think you’re some pure evil thing. You’re obviously a nice guy we just… How did we describe it Sam?”

“Like a tiger raised in the circus.” He said. “Sure you can hug and cuddle said tiger but if they get hungry or angry, or even a little too playful they will go ahead and kill you. Not their fault because that’s their thing, but you know… we’d rather not have that happen.”

“In other words-” said Abby. “-we are going to kick your ass if you hurt Sebastian. No mercy.”

Apollyon was happy that Sebastian had such good friends. “That’s fair… But he might not even want to be with me after today… No sane person would be.”

“… What are you two doing here?” Asked Sebastian. It looked like he had just walked down the mountain path. Well, it was midday after all so it made sense that Sebastian would have turned up here by now.

“We were just talking to Apollyon.” Said Sam calmly. “No big deal right?”

Sebastian sighed a little, pitting his hands into his pockets. “Yeah well, you two can get lost for a bit, okay? I want to talk to Apollyon alone.” With slight reluctance the duo left and Sebastian sat next to Apollyon. “… So what’s with the shrine?”

“It’s grandpa’s shrine… I’m sorry about everything. I really messed up your life huh?”

Sebastian shrugged. “It’s whatever. Life in the valley would be pretty boring without you.” Apollyon made no sound so Sebastian kept talking. “I’m not mad at you or anything for like attacking and killing that angel. I don’t think I’ll ever be mad at you trying to help someone… and um… I’ve been doing some thinking about us…”

“… And you want to break up with me?” Asked Apollyon. “I agree.”

“What? No I, wait… Do you want to break up with me?” 

He sounded hurt and Apollyon winced a little at that reaction. “If it means you and your friends won’t get hurt then yes…” Yoba, it hurt to say that. “You getting a knife held to your throat was more danger than I ever wanted to put you in and it just escalated with the angel and your friends.”

“But you easily killed them.”

“Only because it was starving. It was weak and more feeble than a proper angel from the Yoba plane… I don’t doubt if an angel came straight out of the Yoba plane to fight me I’d be dead as fuck.” He sighed and looked down at his hands. “I’m tainted. I’m vile. I’m disgusting. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Sebastian sighed a little as held Apollyon’s hand and rested his head on his shoulder. “Well according to that angel I’m just as tainted as you are… I just, this isn’t an issue about you being a demon to me. It’s about monogamy. I don’t want to worry about you going off to Zuzu city or the next town over and fucking some woman or some other man behind my back.”

That surprised Apollyon greatly. “Seriously? Monogamy? Not life or death? Really?”

Sebastian looked at Apollyon like he was an idiot. “Yeah. If I was worried about the whole demon thing I would have left you last year. I made my choice about that ages ago. For me monogamy is the only issue I have.”

“Oh… Okay.” Apollyon was not expecting that to be the issue. He just thought that Sebastian would hate him and curse him forever for slowly turning his life into a living hell because he was a demon. Who wouldn’t at this point?”

“Because I love you and I… As crazy as it sounds I thought it over and I want to give you a second chance.” Said Sebastian.

“… You know, for a guy that’s smart enough to do freelance programming for a living you are really, really stupid.”

“We all do stupid things for the people we love, but if you cheat on me again I am kicking your demon ass to the curb.”

Happiness swelled deep within Apollyon’s chest at those words. It made him so happy and excited to hear that. Okay he wasn’t completely off the hook, but it was a lot better than it could have been. He just needed to work on getting Sebastian’s trust back. He could probably do that. Maybe. He was going to try his best.

“Okay. I’ll do everything I can to make you feel like you can trust me properly again and stuff… We’re gonna go slow again now?”

“Yeah. Give me reasons to trust you fully again.”

“I can do that.”

***

Sebastian had thought long and hard about what to say to Apollyon. He had broken his heart so badly, but he had selflessly come to his rescue again. So he was conflicted. It took him most of the previous night and the majority of his morning to try and pinpoint what exactly were his major concerns.

Surprisingly he hadn’t cared too much about the whole life or death situations he had been thrown into lately because of Apollyon being a demon. Thinking about everything that happened he could only really determine that the thing he was most upset about was just the cheating. Even if it was like he had said and it was all the angel’s doing to lure him into a trap he didn’t want Apollyon to think he had an excuse that absolved him of everything wrong he had done to him.

The pair of them sat in silence for a bit and Sebastian found himself just staring at the shrine. Apollyon looked like he was keeping it in pristine condition. He obviously cared about it a lot. Just in general Apollyon cared too much about things.

“… You know, you’re a really shitty demon.”

“Thanks, I think?”

“No I mean it.” Said Sebastian. “You’re too nice and kind to be evil, and if demons are meant to be evil I don’t think you’ll ever be one no matter what people say.”

“… You really think so?” He sounded unsure about that.

“Yeah. If you didn’t really care and just wanted to like, have sex with me or something there’s no doubt in my mind you could have raped me.”

Apollyon looked at Sebastian in a mix of shock and disgust. “What the fuck Sebastian?”

“Dude, you’re unbelievably strong. You could overpower anyone you want and do whatever you feel like to them. If you were evil you’d be doing whatever you want and not give a damn.”

“… I guess…” Apollyon lightly drummed his claws against his leg. “So um, what can I do to make you trust me fully again? There has to be something I can do.”

“Not sure. Take me on a date when you look like you again.”

That made Apollyon smile a little. “Okay. I can do that… Want to come inside? I can cook something for you. Anything you like.”

Sebastian smiled and little and stood up. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”


	49. Begging

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, so updates for this week and maybe the next are gonna be a little wonky. Mostly because I recently got a new laptop and it's gonna take a while for me to get all my programs working properly and stuff. I use so many things. Transferring files sucks balls. Anyway kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

It took about three days before Apollyon looked human again. It was a significant improvement from the last time he took on a demonic form. Abigail and Sam had come around a couple of times to talk to him, and they seemed to be warming up to him again. That was nice. He wanted people to like him. Maybe Sebastian was right about him? He was a shitty demon. Not that he cared much. He’d rather be a shitty demon than a shitty human being.

When he finally looked human again he slipped into the community center and dumped a ridiculous amount of gold onto the golden scroll in the vault room. The second the last coin got sucked into the scroll the Junimos started to flood the room making joyful squeals as they flailed and danced around. There was a flash of blinding light and the room was completely restored.

Apollyon smiled a little and looked at a yellow Junimo that was dancing by his foot. “So, you guys are done shaking me down for cash, right?” Yellow squealed and ran out of the room towards the hut in the main part of the building. “Hey! Get back here you yellow bastard!”

He chased the Junimo out to the hat and watched it pull a star out from the hut and stick it in frame above the fireplace. The looked very pleased with themselves as they admired their work. “Ooo id it! We ix bus oonight!”

“… You’re fixing the bus tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Apollyon moved to exit the community center only noticing when he reached the door that Yellow had decided to follow him. “… Shoo. Go away.”

“Nuuuuuu!”

Apollyon frowned a little and pushed the Junimo away with his foot. They looked offended but he didn’t really care. “Just fix the damn bus okay? I need that damn thing fixed.”

Yellow nodded and saluted him before waddling off and yelling at some of the other Junimos. Possibly about helping them get the bus fixed. Apollyon still thought it was weird that the Junimos wanted gold to fix the bus. He highly doubted that they needed gold, but he wouldn’t underestimate the little bastards dressing up like a human and hiring an actual mechanic to fix it. They seemed like the kind of bastards that would do that.

While he was here Apollyon decided to have a little look around and admire his work. He had managed to get the crafts room fixed after his accident last winter and the Junimos lost their shit and fixed the bridge to the quarry. He’d also fixed the boiler room but didn’t trust the Junimos enough in their engineering skills to ride around in the mine carts they fixed. He still had three more bundles to go but he was pretty confident that he could do it by the end of the year if he really tried.

He walked out of the community center and sighed a little. He wanted to go and see Sebastian now, but he still felt ashamed and guilty about what he had done. Her influence or not he felt like he should have been able to control himself. It shouldn’t have felt so easy to just go along with her.

Apollyon nervously chewed on his bottom lip and headed to the Wizard tower. If there was someone who could help him it had to be him. The Wizard had to have some kind of magical solution he had to. There was no way Harvey could have something for him. Until he was told otherwise this was a magic problem.

He opened the door to the Wizard’s tower only to find him stirring something in his cauldron. He seemed surprised to see him. “Hello Apollyon. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“I um… I need help. I really need help.”

The Wizard didn’t move from his cauldron but nodded anyway. “I see, so what is the problem?”

“… Well the other day when I went with Sam, Seb, and Abby to their gig they got attacked by an angel after it failed at seducing me. Turns out it was a thing called a Gar-dinner and I kind of ate its face. Also, Sam and Abby now know I am a demon.”

The Wizard almost dropped his spoon into the cauldron. “Are you serious? You revealed yourself to them? And you killed an angel? Wow you just… You never cease to amaze me with your stupidity.”

“Hey.”

“Look, the Sam and Abby thing is annoying, but is manageable. I just can’t believe you killed a Gar-dinner…” He hung his spoon back up on a hook on the wall and walked over to his bookshelf and started searching. “Many of us just assumed that they had gone extinct on earth after the great metaphysical wars. I’m guessing the Gar-dinner wasn’t at full power since it probably didn’t have many demons to feed on.”

“… I guess? She was very animalistic. She just kept going on about wanting to eat the Void essence inside me.”

The Wizard nodded and took out a book, quickly flicking through the pages. “Sounds about right. If she was at her full power she could have summoned an entire forest to consume your body if she saw fit…” He paused for a moment to quickly read something. “… Yes, well you should be careful now Apollyon. Angels can smell when the blood of their own stains another. Do be careful if you run into another one anytime soon. They might not be as weak and sickly as that one.”

“… Got it. Anyway I need help.”

“Right, yes-” he quickly shut his book and put it back. “-what do you need?”

“… For years I’ve just been trying to suppress my demon self but that hasn’t really worked.” Apollyon was quickly becoming anxious. The gravity of the question he was asking was weighing down on him. “Is there any way that I can separate my demon side from my human side?”

“… But you’re all demon?”

“I know that, but I just…” He sighed. “After living like this for so long and experiencing the way normal humans live, I don’t just want to act and pass as a human, I want to be human. Every part of me. I want it all. Pleasure, pain and all that comes with being human I want it… Can you understand that?”

The Wizard looked surprised but seemed to take his question seriously. “Well, I can look into it I guess… But if I can be honest this isn’t something you should ask lightly. Just off the top of my head this sounds like it would be similar to exorcising a demonic spirit from a body.”

“Brilliant. Let’s do that.”

The Wizard sighed a little. “Apollyon, it’s not that simple. Demons are essentially made from pure Void essence. That’s what you are. Even shadow brutes drop it occasionally when their physical forms disapate.” He stroked his heard in contemplation. “You know how in movies and novels a possessed person vomits up ectoplasm? That’s essentially void essence forcibly leaving the body through magical means… and you’re pretty much all Void essence in human skin. Performing such a magical ritual on you would make you violently vomit up your insides since there isn’t enough human in you to let you survive.”

Apollyon’s heart sank at that. “But… but I… There has to be something you can do? I can’t suppress it anymore. Sure it hides some of my more obvious features but I need… I need to be free of this part of me. I have to know if it was my demon self or my human self that hurt Sebastian so badly…”

“You hurt Sebastian? Well as long as he doesn’t have claw or bite marks on him it was probably your human side.”

That just caused more distress for Apollyon. “I cheated on him you idiot! As soon as I saw that Gar-dinner in her human form all that mattered was her. I forgot everything and just decided I wanted to do anything and everything I would to please her and get into her pants! Sure she said she used some psychic power on me to make it easier, but I just need to know.”

The Wizard was taken aback by this but his expression quickly changed into one of sympathy. “I see… I’ll do what I can to help you but I can’t promise anything. My magic destroys magical beings from the Void by its very nature. You’d need to talk to someone who knows about Void magic if you want to explore every one of your options here.

“… Thank you… I’ll let you get back to what I was doing. I’m sorry I bothered you.” Apollyon left the tower feeling disheartened. He couldn’t ask his mother about this because he knew she would never agree to it. She thought he was perfect just the way he was, demon parts and all. He doubted that Colt would help him. Since he didn’t like demons his cure might be a blessed blade straight to his heart and he wasn’t prepared to die just yet. The only other person he knew who used Void magic was the witch.

It made him feel sick but he decided to go and see if he could find her. The times he had seen her she had flown up into the mountains so he had to start looking around there. She might have lived by the train tracks. He hadn’t really explored that area very much. He was just interested in the spa.

After a bit of searching he happened to find a rock with chicken feet blocking a hole in the side of the cliff. Amused by this he gave it a little poke and watched as the chicken feet shuffled around a little to get their balance again. Clearly this was magic, but not very good magic. He gave it a particularly hard shove and it flew off in what he could only assume was surprise.

Apollyon walked into the cave surprised to see it looked a lot like a swamp with a hut right in the middle of it. Cautiously he walked down the only path to the hut when suddenly a green skinned monster jumped out at him. With its eyes glowing red it put its hands up and made a sound that seemed to be laughing.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you pass… I’d lose my job.” It croaked.

Apollyon looked at him in surprised. “You’re a Goblin, right?”

“Yep. Sorry, but you have to go now. Okay?”

“… But the witch is expecting me. If I don’t show up she’ll get mad at me, come and fine me and then when I tell her it was you who stopped me from seeing her, guess who is going to get fired. Not me that’s for sure.”

The Goblin looked very troubled by this. “… Okay fine. If she asks how you got in here just tell her I was going to the bathroom or something.” The quickly scampered off into the swamp. It was probably watching him closely from a distance.

Apollyon took a deep breath and headed into the cabin. Inside he found three disturbing and twisted looking shrines. One shrine he noticed right away. The Dark Shrine of Memory. That was the one he wanted the Wizard to use last winter if he died to wipe out the town’s memory of him. There was also the Dark Shrine of Selfishness that turns children to doves and the Dark Shrine of Night Terrors that would draw monsters to your home. Why someone would want that he had no idea.

He continued to look around the hut seeing most of the usual things he would expect. Things like a cauldron, animal bones, and other magical paraphernalia. Suddenly the hut door swung open and Morgana flew in. She looked surprised to see him there but quickly went back to resting bitch face. 

“What are you doing here?”

“I need help.”

“Ask Ras. I’m sure the cheating fuck can help you as long as his dick isn’t in some stupid slutty bitch.” She snapped. “Now shoo!” She grabbed her broom and whacked him several times. “Out. Out of my hut.”

Apollyon flinched and did his best to block the bristles. “He can’t help me. I need someone that knows Void magic, and I can’t ask my mum. Please… You might find it useful in some way.”

“Well if it benefits me in some way-” Morgan sat on her broom and happily hovered in the air in front of him. “-what is it?

“I need to you split my human and demon halves.”

“… Kid, you do realize your demon part is what’s keeping that body alive, right? Take the flour out of bread and you don’t have bread anymore. You just got yeast, water, salt, and oil. What the hell can you make out of that? Your human half is a dead, fleshy corpse. You’re just not human enough to be anything other than a demon wearing a human skin suit.” A wicked grin spread across her face. “Feel disgusting yet? You should. You’re worse than a normal demon that pushed a humans conscious to the background.”

Apollyon was crushed to hear that. He had to be somewhat human. He did everything he could to be human and tried to only do demon things when his life or the life of people he cared about was threatened. Was that too much for any spark of humanity in him to develop?

“… What do I have to do to become more human?”

“What?”

“I want to be human.” Said Apollyon. “I-I can’t be this anymore. I don’t want this. I want to be human. I’ll do anything… How human do I have to be before you can do something to make me fully human?”

She shrugged. “Like fifty or seventy percent? Something like that… So you seriously want to be human? You want to be weak and get sick and die horribly? How dull.”

Apollyon felt more and more hopeless by the second. “Please… I just… I’ve done horrible things to the people I care about. I don’t know if it was because I’m a demon but I want to be human… If I’m human I can change my behavior... I’ll do whatever you want me to do. Just please… I don’t want to hurt anyone…”

Morgana thought for a bit and weighed up her options in her mind. “Hmm, okay. I’ll have to do a bit of research on this, but I’ll give you something.” She grabbed a jar of bright yellow crystals and handed it to him. “Here you go. Solar essence. The opposite to Void essence. Munch on a few of these things a day. Probably will make you vomit a bunch, but it’s the opposite to Void essence and humans have lots of this stuff in them so… Munch on these things like a dumbass eating apricot cornels.” 

Apollyon looked down at the jar and visibly cringed. He didn’t like it. The Solar essence gave him a bad feeling and he always dropped it if he found any in the mines. “Okay… Thanks I think…” He quickly left and went home. He really hoped that this could work to some degree, even if it didn’t fully do it he wanted to be as human as he possibly could.

***

Sebastian just typed his last line of code in for his client’s web page when his mum walked in. Robin smiled and offered him a cup of coffee. “Can I come in?”

He nodded a little and took the cup from her. “Sure. What’s up? Do you need me to do something?”

“Oh it’s nothing like that. I was just wondering how things are going with Apollyon.” She said. “You two were joined at the hip for the better half of two season. Work getting in the way or am I just not observant enough these days?”

Sebastian sighed a little. His mum meant well. She wanted to just check up on him and see how things were going. She didn’t mean to be nosey. At least he hoped so. Truthfully he had been avoiding Apollyon and accepting a little more work than usual. He was worried that Apolllyon’s behavior wasn’t the result of some demonic urge and he was just a manipulative dick. He had been warned several times that Apollyon wasn’t human. Just a demon wearing human skin.

“Just some harsh deadlines. That’s all.”

Robin nodded a little, but she didn’t seem too convinced by what he said. Maybe it was her mother instincts kicking in or something? “I see… Nothing going on between you two then? Still haven’t had your first big fight?”

“… No…”

“… Are you sure Sebastian?”

“…”

“Well, whatever happened between you two I’m sure you can work things out.” She said. “Talking things out together usually solves most things. Is this something you two can talk about?”

Sebastian stayed quiet. They had talked about it and he had done some mental gymnastics to decide he still wanted to be with Apollyon. He was kind, caring, self-sacrificing and did everything he could to make him happy. Heck, he was pretty sure that Apollyon would jump in front of a train if he asked him to if he thought it would make him happy. Now that he thought about it their relationship might actually be really unhealthy and they probably should talk to each other about it, or even a counselor or something. Then again there wasn’t really someone they could talk to about demon issues without getting prescribed some antipsychotic medication.

Noticing her son’s tightlipped nature she just smiled sympathetically. “Sebby, if something is happening and you need help I’m here for you. Okay?”

“Mum, if you’re worried that I’m going through something like what you and dad went through-”

“Oh goodness no.” Robin looked absolutely shocked to hear those words coming out of her son’s mouth. “No, it isn’t anything like that… I just mean if you feel uncomfortable about relationship things you can come and talk to me, since I’ve done and had a rather disastrous one… The only good thing to come out of that relationship was you.”

Sebastian blushed a little and looked into his coffee cup. “Thanks mum… I know. We’ve had a bit of a fight about something stupid he did but we have talked about it an um, I think we have it under control now. Maybe… I’m conflicted but I’m not stupid. If I think he’d bad for me I’ll do what’s best for me.”

She nodded a little and quickly kissed his forehead. “Okay Sebby. Dinner will be ready in about an hour. I’d like it if you could come up and eat with the rest of the family tonight. Dinner tastes better when we can call eat together.”

“Okay mum.”

“Thank you Sebby.” She headed towards the door but quickly paused in the doorway. “Tonight we’re having pumpkin soup and there’s chocolate cake for afterwards.”

“Cool. Thanks I’ll be up once I double checked this code. Shouldn’t take too long.”


	50. Nightmares and date plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can :D

It felt like forever since Sebastian had gone to see Apollyon. He went down to the farm, surprised to see that it had started to become overgrown again. It was practically a small forest now, but there was a small path so this had to be planned out. This sudden forest seemed to be too thick to walk through normally so Sebastian had to just follow the path and hope that it would eventually lead him to Apollyon’s house.

He walked down the path, quickly noticing the strange trees that were sprouting up around him. They weren’t the normal pine, maple or oak trees that grew in the area. They were darker and looked a little twisted. It was weird to say the least.

After a while he saw a tree tapper on one of these twisted trees and had a little look inside to see what on earth was inside one of these things. It was a weird, thick, dark liquid. Kind of like molasses. It was kind of gross.

He continued down the path but became surprised when it went from cobblestone to a dirt path. From there things went from going in relatively straight lines to twisted paths that curved however they pleased. How was it possible that there was so much land of Apollyon’s farm? In fact, how long had he been walking? He was pretty sure that he had gotten here around midday. Now it looked like it was starting to become dusk.

Pressing on he came across a smashed tapper on the ground. It looked like it had just been ripped off one of the twisted trees and smashed all over the ground. There was a puddle of the ink-like liquid at the point of impact and the surrounding plant life. It made Sebastian uneasy, but pushing past it he continued along the path. Much to his surprise there were more smashed tappers around the twisted trees.

“… Apollyon?” He called. “Apollyon are you around?” He called. Unfortunately for him he didn’t get so much as a verbal response and instead got an animalistic verbal grunting. It sent a shiver down his spine but he continued to walk along the path finding more and more broken tappers.

Eventually he found what looked like Apollyon, kind of. He was pulling the tappers off the twisted trees, gulping down the inky sap, and smashing them. He was making small growling sounds and paid very little attention to Sebastian’s presence.

“… Apollyon?” He called out again. “Are you okay?

His boyfriend slowed down his movements a little, but he still ripped off another tapper and drank the grotesque looking sap before he even bothered to look at him. Apollyon looked relatively human but his teeth seemed to be gnarled and twisted in ways that were neither human nor animal. But still he smiled calmly at Sebastian even if it didn’t look genuine at all.

“Sorry Sebastian.” He said calmly. “I’ve done some soul searching and I’ve realised a few important things… I’m not a human. I’m a demon. I always will be a demon. I don’t love you.”

His words felt like a punch to the guts. “What?”

“I don’t love you I’ve just been passing the time. You could love me if I knew how to lie. But let’s face it I’m shit at that.” He stretched and twitched a little, making terrible popping and cracking noises. Apollyon made an annoyed sound and ripped off another tapper, drinking the sap again.

“… Wait, what the hell Apollyon.” He took a few steps towards his boyfriend, but he just laughed at him.

He looked at Sebastian with a deranged look in his eyes. It was hard to tell if it was hunger, or murder, or some other savage bloodlust. “You know, I was thinking about giving people three seconds but because we fucked I think I’ll give you five.”

Sebastian felt a chill. “Wait, why? What?”

“Five… Four…” As he counted Apollyon peeled off his skin, removing all that was left of his humanity leaving only the demon within. “Three…”

Sebastian quickly ran away back down the dirt path. He desperately tried to find anything that would lead him out of there. The cobble stone path, less twisted trees, anything. But despite his backtracking he ended up getting hopelessly lost as the trees became more twisted and overgrown to the point where his clothes were getting snagged by branches. His escape was slowed down to less than a crawl.

“Two… One!” Maniacal laughter filled the air as trees were mowed down as Apollyon raced through the trees to try and find him. With little to no effort he found Sebastian tangled on in the trees. “Found you.” Before Sebastian could say anything he felt Apollyon’s claws dig into his neck and rip.

***

Sebastian woke up in a cold sweat. He hadn’t had a nightmare in forever. He took a few shaky breaths and got out of bed to start his day. He didn’t want to think about it, but his mind kept going back to it. Especially when he looked into the murky black liquid of his coffee. He felt way too uneasy now.

He also felt a little guilty. Sure Apollyon could be murderous but that was when people attacked him first. There was nothing in his nature that would make him think he was just a murderous psychopath. He was kinder than most humans he knew and he still stood by his opinion that Apollyon was a shit demon.

He shouldn’t be having any dreams about Apollyon going out of his way to hurt him. Maybe cheating on him but he was willing to forgive him, mainly because who he kissed happened to be a thing that wanted to try and eat him. Then again he would probably feel more traumatised if he ended up having a dream where he walked in on Apollyon having sex with some woman or man he wouldn’t be able to face his lover for a while.

“You okay there?” Asked Maru as she walked into the kitchen.

Sebastian looked up at her from the kitchen table. “What?”

“Well, either you are having a coffee binge or you’ve been drinking the same cup of coffee for about an hour and a half.”

“… Oh.” He sipped his coffee and was surprised to find it had gone cold. “Didn’t realise I spaced out for so long.”

She nodded a little and started to make herself a coffee. “Sounds like you’re spacing out a little. Having trouble programming or something? Programming always gives me a hard time but it’s always super rewarding… Guess it would be hard for you to have difficulty with programming being a programmer and all.”

He shrugged and kept drinking his cold coffee. “I guess… Just haven’t been sleeping too well.”

“Your sleep schedule is already messed up as it is. No offence.”

“None taken.” He was in fact, offended. He really wished that Maru would butt out of his business and just leave him alone.

“If you schedule an appointment with Harvey he’ll be able to prescribe you with something that’ll help you.”

“… Thanks.”

“Oh, but if you don’t care for meds he can suggest other things if you’re interested.”

“I’m fine Maru.” He said rather forcefully. He got up with his cold coffee and walked back to his room. “Don’t bother me, I have work to do.”

He didn’t really, but that wasn’t the point. He had issues he needed to deal with and talking to his sister about his sleeping habits. There was no way he was going to talk to Harvey about his problems either. He had a strong feeling Harvey would strongly suggest that he take some kind of antipsychotic drug and a therapist. He didn’t want to deal with that.

With his cold coffee in hand Sebastian sat at his computer and typed away at his computer to try and find a video or something to take his mind off of everything. That basically meant cat and dog videos till either his stomach reminded him that he needed food or his bladder told him he needed to pee.

***

Once Apollyon had done his typical farm chores he had sat down on his couch with his phone in hand and started searching good date ideas. He wanted to come up with something that Sebastian would like that was also obviously romantic and all that mushy stuff. He had considered going to the movies or maybe going to Calico desert now that the bus was running again, but he didn’t know what they could do there.

While he did that he ate a few of the Solar essences that Morgana had given him. They were crunchy like caramel popcorn but tasted like copper. It wasn’t pleasant as all, and gave him stomach cramps like he had swallowed a handful of needles. He just figured that it was just the Solar essence working to expel some of the Void essence in him. It stuck to his teeth a little.

“… What do you think Goblin?” He asked the cat.

Goblin paused from licking her butt to give him a confused look. “Meow?”

Apollyon rolled his eyes and chuckled. “I want to do a romantic date with Sebastian. We’ve already done some of the things like have dinner together, watched movies and some other um intimate activities… Anyway a picnic date sounds nice, right? We can go to the secret woods and-” A sudden wave of nausea struck him and he dashed to the bathroom, promptly vomiting into the toilet.

Within seconds it was covered in a thick black liquid that reminded him of tar. He attempted to flush it and was relieved to see that it wasn’t as sticky as tar. Now hopefully that was just his body expelling Void essence and not something horrible like he just vomited up coagulated blood or something. If it was the blood thing he was pretty fucked.

He quickly gargled some mouthwash and went back to talk to talk with Goblin, who had gone back to licking her butt again. “So I’m thinking I’ll make some sashimi, some of that gross pumpkin soup he like so much and um… A salad, some chicken, maybe just chicken sandwiches? Is there some really romantic food I don’t know about?”

Goblin glared at him for interrupting her grooming session again and slinked off to another room. She obviously hated everything he was doing and wouldn’t care unless it involved getting her food or something along those lines. He couldn’t really blame her. He would probably be the same if he was in her shoes, paws?

He continued to research what he could need for a romantic picnic. Most of it said he needed candles but those were for an indoors romantic evening. Eventually though he got what he assumed was a relatively good list of things to pack and make.

With a general idea of what he wanted to do, he called Sebastian. “Hey Sebastian. Are you free tomorrow night?”

“Depends.”

“… I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner with me. If you’re busy you don’t have to I just… I thought it would be nice if we could do this together.” He knew his anxiety was quickly getting the better of him because he was rambling. “Like a date and stuff. I want to do something nice for you, but if you’re uncomfortable with being alone with me at the moment we can go and eat out at the Saloon instead. I just want us to have nice evening together.”

“It’s fine Apollyon. I’ll come over around eight.”

Aoollyon beamed. “Awesome. I’ll see you then.” He hung up and quickly went to his kitchen to take note of what he needed to get.


	51. Picnic Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My demon boy, he tries so hard... I put him through so much... But such is life and all that jazz. Please kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

“You are an idiot. A straight up double choc, triple fudge idiot with a side of dumb ass.” Said Abigail as she hoed into her nachos. Sebastian had walked down to the Saloon to have lunch with Sam and Abigail. He had told them about Apollyon asking him out on a date and Abby just decided to tear him a new one about it.

Sam gave Sebastian a sympathetic look. “She’s kind of right you know… I mean I could probably overlook the demon thing but you know… He still kissed someone else.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Wow and to think you two were trying to hook me up with him to begin with. Nice one eighty you assholes.”

Abby waved him off. “Dude, it’s like Sam said. Demons are fine but he was cheating on you. Cheating is fucking disgusting and an ultimate deal breaker for everyone no matter the reason.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that.” Said Sam. “He claims that the Gar-dinner angel thing had done some mind control thing on him.”

To that Abby grumbled and ate some more of that cheesy nacho goodness. “I guess… But it wasn’t like he was brainwashed ah-la torture style, or like possession… Can you even possess a demon?” That was a pretty good question and one Sebastian hadn’t really thought of before. Maybe a stronger more powerful demon could possess a weaker one but that didn’t seem like it was likely.

Sam shrugged. “Hypnosis? Or maybe like in sci-fi it could have been like a virus or something?”

Abby rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Still whatever the case I wouldn’t take him back. Like I’ll still be his friend, but if I was in your shoes Sebastian I wouldn’t take him back. But you know, you do you… Is his dick game that amazing?”

Sebastian blushed and ate some nachos. “Shut up Abby I just… He pretty much died for me last winter. He didn’t know if he would come back either when he did that… I just don’t know. I want to give him another chance but I don’t know. If I let him off for this and he wasn’t under some kind of mind control at the time I’m just letting him know I’ll let him get away with it again.”

“Yeah, kill the fucker if he even thinks he can get away with that shit again.” Said Abby sternly. “Throw a fistful of salt in his fucking face. Salt hurts demons, right?”

Sam just shrugged. “Look man you love him and he loves you right? He’s willing to change himself too right? And you’re generally a good judge of character so if you think he’s worth it I guess you should go for it?”

Abby frowned and punched his arm. “Shut up Sam. You know where this is gonna end up right? Seb and Apollyon are gonna end up getting married and move away to some secret cave in the mountains far away from everyone. Apollyon’s gonna go full demon and start eating people and being in such a remote location Seb’s gonna end up being a cannibal and then they are gonna end up being some kind of fucked up urban legend. The demon cannibals of the Ferngill Republic.”

Sebastian looked at her like she was an idiot. “No.”

“Sounds like a B grade horror movie.” Mused Sam. “… Speaking of B grade horror movies you said that Yoba fanatics have tried to kill him before, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well what about the other side?” Asked Sam. “Any fruit loops trying to worship him?”

Abby looked worried when she heard that. “Oh yeah, that’s possibly worse than someone trying to kill him…”

Sebastian frowned a little. “Why?”

She shook her head and sighed. “Well through my study of the occult it’s sad to say that just like there are branches that kill demons for Yoba there are Void worshiping people that think and do some really weird shit. Remember when I was really into looking up true occult crimes and stuff?”

Sam shuddered a little. “Why couldn’t you have had normal teenage hobbies, like going crazy over celebrities and junk like that.”

“Because I refuse to be a walking cliché.” Abby picked up a corn chip and pointed it at Sebastian. “The Sundown cult. Group of crazy fucks that lived on a commune that the government raided because they thought they were stockpiling weapons. They knock down those doors and find a bunch of so called virgin girls having sex with dogs and goats to both appease and try to birth their so called god into the world. While the girls were doing that the men were doing really bloody animal sacrifices. Many of the cult members talked about being able to see visions of the demon they worshiped while doing those things and claimed it gave them magical powers. But they were all on some really strong hallucinogenic.”

Sebastian cringed at that. “Gross.”

“Point is there are some really fucked up people out there. What if a fucked up group finds out about Apollyon and decided the best way to appease him is to kill things for him or to offer their bodies up to him?” Asked Abby.

“… Alright I’ll keep cultists away from him.” Said Sebastian.

“Didn’t like most of that cult burn to death?” Asked Sam.

Abby nodded. “Yep… You know, now that we know Apollyon’s really a demon it makes you wonder doesn’t it?”

“What?”

“Were those people completely crazy drug addicts or did they actually summon some kind of demon?” Asked Abby. “If so do you think anyone could summon a demon and get magical powers by doing that stuff?”

Sam gave Abby a weird look. “You want to get fucked by a dog or a goat?”

“Ew no. Fuck off Sam.” She shoved him a little. “But side note, do you think Apollyon can give you magic powers since you’ve had sex with him? I am assuming it was good sex and neither party was left unsatisfied by the others performance.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Go fuck a cactus Abby.” That was an interesting thing for him to think about. As far as he knew Apollyon couldn’t do that kind of magic stuff. As far as he knew all his magic was kind of self-contained and not really able to be shot out of him or anything like that. He’d probably ask him about that stuff a little later. For now he’d just enjoy eating nachos with his friends.

***

With the quick swish of his sword Apollyon sliced through the last slime in the secret woods. He had been spending the whole day planning out what to cook and bring to the picnic. He had decided on pumpkin soup, salad, crispy bass, sashimi, blueberry tart, and mead. All homemade of course. After that he just had to go ahead and clear out the slimes.

He even brought out a broom to sweep away the dirt in front of the Old Master Cannoli statue before he laid down the blanket. He pulled a few battery powered lamps and placed them around the blanket to keep it in place. He hoped that it looked nice enough and Sebastian would enjoy it too.

“… Yes, right… Yoba I hope he likes this.” With everything set up Apollyon headed back to the farm to meet up with Sebastian and to quickly neaten himself up to make himself look presentable for his boyfriend. He had a quick shower and ran a comb through his hair. He was going to look good for Sebastian.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Apollyon dashed over, quickly opening it to see a rather surprised looking Sebastian. He looked a little disheveled and kind of tired. Apollyon really hoped that Sebastian was up for walking out to the secret woods.

The tired looking programmer gave Apollyon a kind of skeptical look as he saw what he was wearing. “… Um, I thought we were eating at your place? Did you change your mind and call a taxi or something?”

“Huh? Why?”

“You look like you’re all dressed up to go somewhere nice.”

Now Apollyon felt a small hint of panic welling up inside him. He hadn’t thought about that. “Oh um… I’ll go change.”

He went to go back inside but Sebastian quickly grabbed his wrist. “It’s fine… You look nice. You gonna invite me in now?”

“Actually no.” He picked up a picnic basket and held it out for Sebastian to see. “Picnic in the secret woods… That is if you’re okay with walking that far. If not we can just eat here. But it’s more likely Goblin will claim food by standing on it.” He felt like he was just making one mistake after another and at this rate he’d do something really stupid and Sebastian would just leave.

“Picnic sounds good. Let’s get going.”

Apollyon smiled a little and happily lead Sebastian to the secret woods. He was glad to see that Sebastian looked surprised that everything was already set up and ready for them. He was also thankful that Sebastian looked impressed by the food he had prepared too.

“I hope you like this.”

“I do.” Said Sebastian as he looked around. He picked up the pumpkin soup and poured some out for himself. “I thought you hated pumpkin soup?”

“I do, but you like it so I made it.” Apollyon ate a little bit of sashimi and salad. “I um… I like making people happy.”

“… Yeah.”

“…” Did he say something wrong? Did he make another mistake? He didn’t want Sebastian to feel like well, he didn’t really know what Sebastian could possibly pull out of that and make it a bad thing. “Do you like it?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah.” He quickly ate some of the soup. “Everything you make is nice.”

Apollyon smiled a little and ate some food. He cringed a little when he swallowed. The Solar essence he had been eating did make it a little painful to eat normal food, but he was just going to smile and let it happen. He was becoming more human this way, right? Right?

“You okay?”

He looked over at Sebastian and smiled a little. “I’m okay. Just strained my muscles a little when I was working today. Nothing a good night’s sleep can’t fix.” He didn’t want to tell Sebastian about what he was trying to do. He had a feeling Sebastian would try and talk him out of it if he tried. Maybe he’d say something about him being perfect just the way he was. That was just a lie. He knew that.

Thankfully Sebastian didn’t press any further and the two of them continued to eat in relative silence. Once in a while the two of them would talk about something trivial but that was okay. Apollyon liked that about Sebastian. They didn’t have to fill the air with needless noise when they were together. They could just be together and be satisfied.

“So, I have a demon related question for you.” Said Sebastian as he helped himself to a blueberry tart.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I was talking to Abby and Sam about stuff and I was wondering if it is possible for like normal people to summon demons… They were talking about cults and stuff and cults that have demons as their gods and junk…”

Apollyon chuckled nervously. He wasn’t proud of the things many demons did, but he wasn’t ignorant of the things they did. “Well yeah… If you have proper instructions and have some magic items it’s possible to summon something, but you can just pull anything out of the Void if you’re not careful… And most demons are assholes. They don’t see humans as sentient beings that have complex emotions. You’re just dolls and many of us find it amusing to watch you do what we say.”

“… So you’ll ask us to do really fucked up shit for no reason?”

“Most of the time, yes. I remember once hearing some more powerful demons laughing and bragging about some of the twisted and fucked up shit they have made humans do. Everything from bestiality to self-mutilation.”

“… That’s pretty fucked up.”

“Yeah… But I think it’s even worse when they go and give humans a small taste of magic and just reinforce the idea that the messed up things they are doing are working…” He sighed a little and drank some mead. “And just for the record I can’t give people magic powers. I’m not the kind of demon that can cast magic.”

“Ever come across occultists that tried to worship you as the bringer of the end times or something?”

“Nope. Only came across people that wanted to sacrifice me because I was a child… I hate dealing with people on either side of the magic spectrum. They either want to kill me for breathing or do horrific things to make me happy… I just want to be left alone.”

Sebastian nodded a little and went back to eating. The rest of the evening went quietly and eventually the two of them packed everything up and wandered back to Hellfire farm. Much to Apollyon’s delight Sebastian held his hand the whole way there. It made him want to kiss him, but he felt like he couldn’t do that. It just seemed more appropriate to let him initiate that after what had happened.

When they got to his front door Apollyon paused for a moment. “… Do you want to come in?”

“… I still have a lot of work to do.”

“Oh right… Sorry…” He sighed sadly, feeling guilty. “I probably put you in a difficult position asking you out tonight huh? You should have said something if you were busy.”

Sebastian looked a little confused. “Apollyon, I wanted to come out here tonight. You haven’t put me behind at all. You don’t need to apologies.”

“… You sure?”

“Yeah… Night Apollyon.” He quickly kissed him on the cheek and left.

Apollyon stood by his front door in stunned silence. Sebastian had kissed his cheek. He had kissed him. He must have really liked the date he’d set up. It made Apollyon feel giddy and excited. He wasn’t a total failure. There was still some hope for him and Sebastian and it made his stomach flip and flutter in excitement. Actually, that wasn’t excitement. It was the Solar essence rushing back up. Apollyon quickly ran around the side of the house and promptly threw up.


	52. A witch's work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little chapter about Morgana going about her day being a witch. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Morgana hummed a little to herself as she looked through her spell books. She was intrigued by the idea of attempting to extract the Void essence from a demon without killing them. She didn’t think it was possible considering Apollyon’s unique anatomy Maybe he would split into two personalities? Maybe his human side would just shrivel into a husk and die? It was all very interesting.

As she poured over her books her henchman knocked on her door and peeked inside. “Boss?”

“Yes?”

“Can I take my lunch break now?”

“Hmm? Oh, is it lunch time?” She really needed to install a clock in her hut. “I should probably stop and eat too…”

Her henchman nodded a little. “… May I ask what you are working on?”

“Trying to figure out how to rip a demon out from a human body that has no human soul in it. It’s not going too well.”

Her henchman nodded along with a slightly glazed over look in his eyes. They didn’t seem to understand what she was saying at all. “I see… Have you made any headway?” As he asked he pulled a jar of void mayonnaise out from their coat and started eating it.

She cringed a little at her henchman’s eating habits but did her best to ignore it. He was good at keeping people away most of the time. “Well I have some ideas, but they aren’t very practical… So far I have three possible scenarios in my head. He’s either I can separate the demon from the human and we’ll have two separate entities, I’ll get all the Void essence out of him and the human body will be a shrivelled husk, or I’m just weeding out the impure Void essence and I’m turning him into a ticking time bomb.”

“I see… Best case scenario?”

Morgana shrugged. “Best case? I can do what he wants and just have a jar full of Void essence. Apollyon can go on and live a boring normal farming life.”

“… Worse case?”

“…” A sick and twisted grin made its way across her face. “Worst case? Ah, the destruction will be glorious. I thought he was a ticking time bomb before but if this fails his demon side could go ballistic. Demons don’t take kindly to being mistreated. The whole Valley could run red with blood. It would be a sight to see… The whole Valley completely gone.”

The henchman seemed troubled by this. “You think so?”

“Perhaps. I’m not sure.” She flipped through her book some more and hummed happily to herself.

Morgana wasn’t necessarily someone who wanted all living things to die in a horrible, disastrous way. She was just a bitter and scorned woman that wanted to destroy everything her cheating ex cared about. Unfortunately he seemed to really care about the valley so that had to get messed up somehow. That was the only way she could be happy, if Ras was miserable. If people tend to get in the way it didn’t matter that much to her.

Suddenly she stood up and snapped her book shut. “I’m going for a flight. I’ll see you in a few hours. Finish your lunch break and get back to work.”

“Yes boss.” Her henchman quickly scurried away and Morgana grabbed her broom.

With a swift kick she hovered off the ground and flew away off across the mountains. From her height she had a good view of the valley and most of the people going about their day. She hummed happily to herself and flew down to Apollyon’s farm. She had always felt like there was a strong pull coming from that place. Possibly because there had always been someone who used the power from the Void to their advantage living on that farm?

Either way she happily headed down and walked around the property. It was calm and peaceful to her. Obviously Apollyon wasn’t here at the moment. As she walked the resident cat wandered out and glared at her. She just smiled at the grumpy flesh sack and gave her a few pats.

“Hello Goblin. How are you my dear?”

“Meow.”

“I see. Has anything happened to Apollyon since he’s been eating that Solar essence that I gave him?”

“Meow.” Goblin wandered off around the side of the house and stared at a dead patch of earth covered in what looked like some kind of tar. The edges were dried and crystalized looking like normal Void essence.

“… Is this Apollyon’s vomit?”

“Meow!”

In all honesty Morgana had no clue what on earth the cat was saying, but she just assumed she had some clue as to what she was saying. “Thanks…” She took a bottle out of her pocket and quickly waved her hand over the gunk, watching in satisfaction as it quickly jumped from the ground to the bottle. Once it was all in there she held it up to the light and analysed it for a moment. “…”

She then snapped her fingers and her henchman suddenly appeared in front of her. They were sitting cross legged on the ground while reading a magazine. He seemed really surprised to be there. “Boss?”

She held the bottle up to his face. “See this? This is a mix of bile and Void essence. It completely destroys organic matter by the looks of it. So guess where you’re going to be hanging out for the next few days?”

“… The farm?”

Morgana sighed a little and rubbed her forehead. “It’s mixed with bile… Which means that he was vomiting. Where do you vomit when you can?”

“… A bucket?”

“And where do you pour out the vomit when the bucket is full?”

“A toilet? Oh, am I going to be collecting that stuff in the sewers?!” They looked completely shocked and slightly disgusted.

Morgana just handed him a few empty bottle. “Yep. Expect your pay this week to be doubled and once it’s done I’ll give you three jars of Void mayonnaise too.” Before he could respond she snapped her fingers and sent her henchman off to the sewers. Hopefully she would soon have more of this stuff to look at. It should provide some insight as to how Apollyon’s body was dealing with the Solar essence.

“Morgana? What are you doing here?”

She looked over at Rasmodius and frowned. “What? Not allowed to see the farmer? What are you doing here? Gonna see if you can make him commit an act of infidelity and drag him down to your level?”

The Wizard became flustered at this. “What? I. No. Never. I’d never do something like that to someone. I… Look, I just came here to see if Apollyon was here. I can clearly see he is not so I shall be taking my leave.”

“… Wait, why were you here?” She quickly zipped in front of him and hovered just above him on her broom. “What were you going to talk to him about? Tell me.”

“Nothing that concerns you.”

She frowned and zapped at his feet with purple lightning. “Talk asshole. What are you here for? You two aren’t super buddy-buddy at the moment.”

He sighed a little and shook his head. “Well, as you might know Apollyon does not like being a demon and I was coming here to discuss options.”

That was interesting. She should have guessed that Apollyon would have asked her cheating ex for his help in this matter too. When dealing with the unknown it was always best to get as much help as possible. Getting help from opposite ends of the spectrum was about as wide a nest as anyone could cast. Now she was curious about what he had come up with.

“I see…” She pretended to act all aloof and board. “So what? You coming here to try and tell him you can separate his demon and human self? Fat chance. Your magic will probably kill him rather than help him.”

The Wizard glared at her. “My magic won’t kill him. Magic from the Yoba plane is not made to do that.”

“… Your magic is made specifically to kill demons you wet noodle.”

“Yes well, it’s also made to help people. Which is what I intend to do!” He seemed quite flustered now. “I intend to separate his demon and human selves… Hopefully his consciousness will stay within the human vessel… But still, I’ll do everything that I can!”

Morgana nodded a little at his words. “I see… so you’ve been roped into this too huh?”

“… You’re helping him?”

“Why do you sound so shocked? I can help people out when I feel like it.”

He looked very sceptical and just shook his head. “Whatever… I hope you haven’t gone and tried to give him anything that’ll kill him.”

“I gave him some Solar essence to eat.” She said calmly. “Seems to be working for him.”

“Solar essence?!” Cried the Wizard in shock. “You can’t give him something like that! You might as well be asking someone to eat a spoonful of arsenic!”

“Oh shut up. He isn’t dead.” Snapped Morgana. “And neither of us have ever seen something like him before! Solar essence seems to be working for him so you can just shut up and fuck off. At least I am doing something for him. What are you doing? Coming over for a tea party? You’re a dick!” She pointed a finger at him and zapped him with some more purple lightning.

The Wizard jumped as he was shocked and fell over, slightly singed. In retaliation he pointed at her broom and flung a spell at it that sent Morgana into a tailspin. She screeched as she lost control and crashed into a bush. Almost instantly her rage set the bush on fire. The fight was on.

***

Green and Blue had been hanging out in the small cave on Apollyon’s property. They were intrigued by the mushroom boxes that had been set up in there and were looking inside to see what was growing in there. Green spotted common, chanterelle, and red mushrooms. Blue spotted morel and purple mushrooms.

Just for fun Blue drew a happily little smiley face in the dirt. “So how is the farmer? When he came back a while ago he looked like a demon and stuff. It was all spooky, and now he’s all sick and stuff.”

Green shrugged. “Humans are weird things that get sick all the time. The farmer might be a demon but he still has a human body. Human bodies get sick all the time. He’s got a human sickness… Should go to the human doctor. Mr smarty glasses doctor man. He’ll know what to do. If not, then wizard.”

Blue nodded in agreement. “Okay. Sounds good.”

Suddenly the sound lightning rattled the cave and made both the Junimos jump in surprise. They looked outside and weren’t surprised to see that the witch and the wizard were having a fight again. Hopefully they wouldn’t destroy the farmers property too much.

“… Should we stop them?” Asked Blue.

“Nah, too dangerous.” Said Green.

“But they are fighting.”

“So?”

“There is a bush on fire!”

“… No. Let’s just go back to looking at the mushrooms.” Green walked back into the cave.

“But the fire…”

Green took hold of Blue’s hand and dragged them back in cave. “Ignore it.”

“But it’s fire…”

“Ignore it! Count the mushies with me instead. They won’t let the whole place catch on fire.”

***

Later that night Apollyon returned home from a long day in the mines. He pulled open the lid of the shipping bin and dumped in a few dozen rocks, a diamond, several pieces of slate and limestone, emerald, jamborite, and kyanite. He also threw in a few dozen lumps of slime for good measure.

He was just about to head inside when he smelt something burning. Fearing the worst he grabbed his watering can and ran across his property only to discover a burnt bush. Apollyon was confused, but poured water on it anyway before heading back inside to sleep.


	53. Sick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Hope you liked the little reprieve with Morgana being Morgana. Now back to the madness. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Much to Sebastian’s surprise when he woke up one morning there were several Junimos sitting around his room doing stuff. Purple was flicking through one of his graphic novels and squealing with surprise whenever something shocked them, Red was pushing his mini figures around the board on his table, Yellow was rapidly pressing the space bar on his keyboard to hear the clicking noise, and Orange seemed to be very interested in putting everything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor in his bin.

“Hey!”

Immediately the Junimos stopped what they were doing and then pounced on him. They squealed in delight and started jumping around on his bed and on him. They seemed to be extremely happy that he was now awake. However Sebastian had no idea why they were so happy.

“… Please stop bouncing on me…”

“Squee!” Orange toppled over and fell off the bed, but Sebastian managed to reach out and grab it before it hit the ground. This seems to have been a mistake because as soon as he did Orange stared up at him with aw and started to hug his wrist while squealing. The other Junimos pounced on him again and hugged him.

“… Why?” Groaned Sebastian as he rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up. “It’s too early for this magic bullshit. What do you want?”

This just set them off and they started making all kinds of weird squeals and bleeps as they flailed their arms around in an attempt to communicate what they wanted from him. Unfortunately Sebastian didn’t understand a word of it.

“Right… Well I’m getting up now…” He put Orange down and slowly moved so the Junimos wouldn’t fly off his bed and hit the floor. From there he just went about his day, though he did end up getting changed in the bathroom because there was no way he was going to take off his underwear while they were in his room. Thankfully they didn’t destroy his room while he was doing that.

When he came back to his room from getting his coffee the Junimos were all sitting up on his desk messing around with his pens and whatever random things he had on his desk. He sighed a little and turned on his computer to try and do some work done. Unfortunately it was kind of difficult with the Junimos trying to see what he was doing and probably asking what he was doing.

“Squee!”

“Blip, blip, breeeeeeee!”

“Eeeeeeeeeee!”

“Breeeeeeeee, squee! Squee!”

“Shut up I’m working. Why are you here? Go away.”

Red walked over and dropped a pen on his keyboard. “Pip!” The other Junimos clapped for them when they did that.

“… I don’t get it.”

“Pip!” Said Red again but more sternly. “Pip! Pip!”

“… I still don’t understand you. Please get out of my room.”

Unsurprisingly the Junimos didn’t leave. They continued to look up at him and make noises. It was very irritating. It was making him itch for a cigarette. Though since he went and threw them away he had to settle with his gum. As soon as he popped out one piece the Junimos went quiet and watched him put it into his mouth. Immediately the group held out their little stick arms out and made little noises like they were expecting something.

“…” Deciding it probably wasn’t a good idea to give Junimos nicotine, he looked through his drawer and found an old packet of gum and gave the Junimos a piece each. While they were occupied Sebastian quickly texted Apollyon to try and get him to come over and take control of this situation.

***

“Minty!” Said Yellow. “It’s minty!”

Purple hummed a little and started to take the wrapper off the gum. “Waxy paper.” They immediately ignored the gum and started to fold up the paper.

Orange started poking at the gum with a pen lid. “… Why are we here again?”

“Because-” Said Red. “-he is the farmers partner and we should get to know him better and stuff… Though I am surprised to find out this human sleeps half the day away. So strange.” They gave their gum to Orange to poke. “Now, we have more important things to talk about. Like um… What do we now know about the farmer’s partner besides the fact he is a sleepy person!”

“He likes picture books!” Said Purple. “Picture books with laser guns that go pew, pew!”

“His room is a mess!” Said Orange. They poked the gum some more. “Needs a good cleaning. So much stuff everywhere.”

Yellow waved their arms wildly. “That board with the buttons on it is all clicky! It goes clickety clack! Clickety clack!”

Red nodded a little and marched over to the computer screen to have a look at what Sebastian was doing. It just looked like a bunch of weird human squiggles that meant nothing to them. Humans were such weird creatures.

Suddenly the door opened up and Apollyon walked in. “Are you okay?”

Sebastian sighed a little and nodded. “Yeah, these guys just kind of just came into my room. I have no idea why. I kind of need them to go away now though. I’m trying to do my work.”

“Of course.” Apollyon picked up the Junimos and put them into his backpack. “Sorry. Sorry.”

Orange and Yellow squealed and squirmed as they were picked up, but they quickly changed their tune when they saw what was in the backpack. “Ooooooo! Weeds! I found weeds!” The two of them promptly threw the weeds out of the bag and onto the floor.

Purple ran around Apollyon’s legs trying to avoid getting grabbed. “No grab! No grab! No grab! Hands off! No touch! Bad touch! Bad touch!”

Red rolled their eyes. “Purple, I don’t think we have the right body parts for anything to actually bad touch us.”

“Don’t care! I don’t want to get picked up and manhandled!”

Their constant avoidance seemed to annoy Apollyon a lot and he constantly apologized to Sebastian. As he talked to Sebastian, Red couldn’t help but notice that Apollyon looked a little sick. It wasn’t super noticeable, but they could tell that there was something wrong. They had bags under their eyes and they looked a little pale. It made them feel a little uneasy, but it made them more receptive to Apollyon picking them up and putting them in their bag.

Once Purple was secured they were taken outside and unceremoniously dumped outside by a tree near Sebastian’s house. He didn’t look over impressed. “Look, go away and don’t bother Sebastian anymore. He doesn’t need to deal with you lot annoying him.”

Yellow shrugged and waddled off back to the community center with Orange close behind. Purple took a little time to grab a pine cone before running after their friends. However Red stayed behind to look up at Apollyon and give him a stern talking to.

“Hey hero, are you sick?”

Apollyon just looked down at them and frowned. “Ick? Oh sick. No, I’m not sick.”

“Are too Mr hero. You need to learn to rest and take better care of yourself.”

“… Shoo. Go home already.”

Red huffed a little and waddled on back after the other Junimos. They were a little concerned about Apollyon being ill, but they trusted that he would take care of himself and make themselves better. He wasn’t the kind of person to let themselves get sick, right? Yeah, he was smart enough to go ahead and get help when he needed it. He wasn’t stupid.

***

Apollyon felt stupid. He didn’t expect the Junimos to just go and annoy Sebastian out of the blue like that. Why on earth did they want to go ahead and do that anyway? It was annoying. They could have done some real damage to Sebastian’s computer if they decided to try and pull it apart.

With a heavy sigh Apollyon started the short walk back to his farm via Pierre’s shop to look at the bulletin board. No one had posted anything, so Apollyon went back home. Along the way he popped a Solar essence into his mouth, cringing a little at the violently bitter after taste. It had gotten to the point where these things were starting to develop an aftertaste not unlike petrol. It burnt all the way down from his tongue to his stomach where the pain just intensified.

Still, he went ahead and endured it. Of course he did. He needed to try and distract himself somehow. He briefly thought of Sebastian and how happy they could be when the witch made good on her promise and they could be together. Properly. No hindrances or unforeseeable hang ups

Suddenly his stomach felt like it was getting stabbed repeatedly, over and over again and he doubled over in pain. His head became dizzy and his legs felt weak. Apollyon collapsed just inches away from his property on the dirt path and he started to vomit. It didn’t matter how much of the black liquid his body would expel. His whole body felt worse with each involuntary heave, if that was even possible. His skull felt like it was getting split in two and his vision quickly began to tunnel until he completely lost all sight and he completely lost all sense of himself.

The only thing that seemed to function was his hearing as he could hear his heart thumping rapidly in his ears and his own labored breathing. His ability to comprehend what was happening to him at the moment was practically impossible as everything just seemed to happen either too quickly or too slowly. He couldn’t tell anymore. Was he dying? Is this what death felt like? He didn’t know for sure.

As everything faded to oblivion he could vaguely hear the sound of a car pulling up and something that sounded like people walking towards him. Maybe? He had no idea. He felt like he was done for. This was the end for him.

***

Today had been a rather fortunate day for these two individuals whom had happened upon Pelican Town. These two had heard rumors of a powerful demon living within Stardew Valley and had hoped to find them. Their source was good on this information. Their father was a prominent member of the magic council after all.

They were intending to walk down to the town and talk to a few of the townspeople, but then they saw him. A man collapsed in a pool of what looked like his own vomit having a stroke. It only took a moment for the two of them to realize that this person had violently expelled Void essence from their mouth and perhaps their nose and eyes. It was a little hard to tell.

Either way the two of them knew straight away that they had found the demon living with Stardew Valley. And he was sick. They were ecstatic. Seeing as how they were heading towards some place called Hellfire farm the two of them assumed that this demon either lived there or knew someone who lived there.

So with smiles on their faces the two of them pulled the unconscious man to their feet and dragged them onto the property. They took them into the farm house and laid them on their bed. The two of them then went about the demon’s home and started looking through everything.

One of them was aghast with horror when they saw the jar of Solar essence sitting on their kitchen table, one third empty. “What’s this? Why would they have this?” Asked one to the other.

“I have no idea…” They looked visibly disgusted just being in the presence of the jar. “Maybe they got tricked into taking it or something? How horrible… They must be very sick right now. We need to make them better. You have some Void essence on you, right?”

They nodded and took out a small bottle of ground up Void essence from their pocket. “Do you think this will be enough to heal them?”

“Perhaps… Hopefully we can discuss what we came here for with them once they are better and wake up.”

“Yes, indeed…” They smiled a little. “I’m sure they will say yes to our request. No one in their right mind would say no. Let’s hurry up and purge the poison of Solar essence from their body.”


	54. Cultists vs Broom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Welcome to the spoopiest time of the year. Almost feels fitting I'm posting a spoopy chapter with cultists and stuff. Though calling this chapter "Cultists vs Broom" probably took most of the spoopyness out of it. lol. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Apollyon’s mind felt like it was full of fog and his body felt like it was weighed down by a ton of bricks. He had no idea how he managed to drag his body back to his home, but he was thankful. He was getting better at blacking out. Not something he should have been proud of but he was.

He slowly sat up, groaning. He rubbed his eyes and slowly blinked only to find that there were two strangers in his room. One of them was a young woman with long raven hair and the other was a man with short dark brown hair. It was difficult for Apollyon to tell if they had a look of concern on their faces or if they were surprised he was in the house.

“... Um, if this is a robbery I literally have fuck all to steal. You’re welcome to the TV is that’s what you really want.”

The woman shook her head. “Oh no, we’re not here to rob you. We never would. We just happened to find you passed out in front of this property and assumed that it belonged to you. We only wanted to help you.”

“You’re really ill.” Said the man. He offered Apollyon a cup of something full of a thick black liquid that kind of smelt like coffee. “Here, this will make you feel better.”

“... Yeah no thanks.” He didn’t want to drink something a random stranger would give him. It could be poison for all he knew. “So if you two aren’t here to rob me why are you here?”

The woman smiled a little at him and walked towards him, brushing some of her hair behind her ear. “Well, we know you are a demon.”

“And you’re here to kill me?” Asked Apollyon. If these were more Yoba fanatics he was going to rip out his hair. He didn’t want to deal with this bullshit today.

The two looked slightly offended at his words. “We don’t follow Yoba.” Said the man. “My sister and I strictly adhere to the magic that governs the Void. We came here because we heard that a powerful demon from the Void now resided in Stardew Valley and we wished to see it for ourselves… We didn’t expect to find you so sickly.”

The woman smiled softly at Apollyon. “We honestly want to help you. We have some medicine that will help you feel better. Please take it. We want to talk with you… And let’s face it a demon like you can easily put an end to us. We heard what you did to those stupid Yoba lovers when they tried to harm you.” She gently pushed the cup into his hands. “I’m Lucy and this is my brother Anton.”

“... Apollyon.” Hesitantly Apollyon took a small sip of the weird drink and instantly felt a million times better. These people knew what they were doing. Before he knew it he had completely drained the whole cup and felt completely invigorated. “Huh, okay that was pretty good.” He got up and stretched. He felt like he could run a marathon or two with all the energy suddenly bubbling up inside him. “So you two are siblings? Is this a blood thing or the creepy cult kind of brother sister relationship?”

“We have the same father, but different mothers.” Clarified Anton. “Anyway, we would like to talk to you. A proposition if you would.”

Apollyon frowned a little and walked to the kitchen to clean out his cup. “Okay, you two talk and I’ll listen.”

“We’re part of a small collective.” Began Anton. “A group of similarly minded individuals who see this world as a rotting mess under the current social, political, and religious regine that dominates the Ferngill Republic… Mostly because we have been villainized by the wider Yoba loving public.”

Lucy nodded in agreement. “So we as group have decided to live together away from the victimization of the rest of the world on a property in the Calico desert. Specifically in the region known as the green belt, so we have water and the ability to grow our own food. We are pretty much self sustaining.”

Apollyon nodded a little. “So you guys are part of a cult?”

“No, a collective.” Corrected Lucy.

Apollyon sighed a little and busied himself finding a tea towel to dry his mug. “Do you have a leader that has ultimate authority? Are you only allowed to learn things approved by your groups leaders? Not allowed to talk to or about former members? Paranoid of the outside world? Rely on shame to keep people in line? Your leader is above the law? Use brainwash methods? Elitist? Don’t know what the group does with your money? Secret rituals? If you answered yes to two or more of these you’re in a cult.”

“Well… What is religion but a legalised cult?” Asked Anton. “Anyway, as a Void demon you must see the benefits of having followers and worshipers to aid you while you do whatever it is you came to this plane for.”

This kind of thinking was kind of annoying to Apollyon. He didn’t care for any of this crazy cult bullshit. Growing up his mum was a firm believer in people making up their own mind and strongly warned him against joining any group with cultish elements. So there was no way he was going to join whatever weird cult this was.

“Yeah, I’m good thanks. I like being alone on my farm, farming things. I’m gonna get a cow soon. Make some cheese. All that good stuff.” He put his cup back in the cupboard. “You may leave now.”

Lucy seemed distressed by this. “But if you come with us you can go ahead and keep farming… You just have more people helping you and we will get you whatever you like. Farming equipment, plants, animals, workers… women…”

“...” Apollyon didn’t like the way she said women. “What kind of cult-”

“Collective.”

“Don’t care. What is your main goal or purpose?” Asked Apollyon. “You guys seem to be very anti-world in general.”

Lucy smiled happily at him. “Ah, well we simply just want to live in our own little paradise away from the rest of the world. We already know that summoning a demon is a little too difficult to do since you always get a random demon. It’s always a much easier to talk to a demon that already lives here... Either that or give birth to a demon, if you’re willing to help out?”

“... Okay, time for you two to go.” Taking a page out of Morgana’s book, Apollyon grabbed a broom and started to push them out of his house. “Out you go. Get off my property. Goodbye. Don’t let the door hit your butts on the way out. Okay?”

The siblings looked very shocked. “Wait!” Cried Lucy. “I’m a virgin! If you come with us you can have many more women like me whenever you want! Like them younger? Older? We can provide!”

Apollyon cringed at the thought. “Ew, no. I’m not into that bullshit. Find another demon. Out.” He lightly hit Lucy in the face. “Out of my house.”

Lucy flailed and spat out some broom bristles. “Gross, bristles. If you want men we can get you men too. You’re good with that, right Anton?”

“What?” Anton looked slightly worried at her sister’s sudden offering up of his body. “Lucy, please I-”

“I don’t want him either!” Snapped Apollyon. “I’m already seeing someone. They would not be pleased if I started sticking my dick in other people. We already had a fight when that fucking Gar-dinner kissed me.”

Lucy’s eyes lit up. “You were attacked by an angel? Did you kill it?”

“Bit the bitch’s head clean off. Get out.” With a rather powerful hit he smacked her in the side. “Out!”

Lucy stumbled towards the door but looked at her brother with an excited gleam in her eyes. “He killed a sacred angel of Yoba. I knew he was powerful just by being granted the status of pagan god but still… He killed an angel!” She stared at Apollyon with an almost insane amount of intensity. “Please, your lover doesn’t have to know. Please impregnate me with your child. I will gladly birth them into this world.”

“... OUT!” Apollyon shoved the siblings out of his house and locked the door behind them. He was starting to wonder what was worse; Yoba fanatics that wanted to kill him or the crazy cultists that wanted to have his babies. Either way neither of them seemed to understand that he wanted to be left alone. Sighing heavily he walked over to his coffee table and was surprised to see that his jar of Solar essence was gone. “... Wait… Did they steal my fucking Solar essence? The fuck cultists?”

***

For the rest of the week Apollyon was very careful as he went about his business in Pelican Town. He knew those cultists were still around. Probably hanging around on some undeveloped corner of his property just watching him. He had woken up several times to see all his crops had been watered or picked and placed by his front door. 

It was pretty scary to be honest. His only solace was that they seemed to believe that he was strong enough to murder them without much of of a second thought. Hell, he probably just made the cultists want to worship him more because he didn’t murder them outright. That might have been a bad idea on his part, letting them live. Then again he never considered himself a killer.

As he hacked down one of the many trees on his farm he could just feel their eyes on him, just burning into the back of his skull. It was creepy. He was going to have to hunt them down and kick them off his farm altogether.

“Hey.”

Apollyon jumped and quickly whirled around to see Sebastian. He relaxed a little and smiled at him. “Hey love. Did you finish your work?”

“Yeah. You okay? You look a little tense.”

“... Come inside and I’ll explain.” He quickly led Sebastian inside and explained his unfortunate situation to him. He told him all about the cultists, what they proposed, what they wanted from him, and how he chased them off with a broom. It wasn’t really the most fun thing to talk about over a cup of coffee.

Sebastian just nodded along to what he was saying and stayed quiet for a solid minute before he bothered to say anything. “Wow… That is… And to think I came over to watch a movie with you.”

“Yeah, sorry about that…” He held Sebastian’s hand and smiled sadly at him. He didn’t want to make his life difficult or put him in danger or anything like that. “We should probably just meet up at your place till I get this under control. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“... Okay.” Sebastian leaned over and kissed him. “You don’t think they are going to do something crazy to you? Like drug you or something?”

“Probably not… But if they do you can be damn sure I’ll be beating the hell out of them and coming back here.” Apollyon hugged him tightly. “I love you… and I’m working on a way to get out of this messed up life of mine. I’m trying to figure out a way for all those stupid magical users to leave me alone.”

Sebastian hugged back but looked a little skeptical at his words. “Really? How?”

“Magic mostly.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “You know explaining everything away with magic is just a lazy excuse, right? I hate that kind of shit.”

“I know love.” He hummed a little and kissed along Sebastian’s jaw and neck. “I’ll make it all up to you soon. I promise. I just need a little more time to get all my magical shit together. I swear.”

His lover hummed a little and tilted his head back a little. “Hmm, fine. But you can start making it up to me sooner rather than later.”

Apollyon’s eyes lit up at that thought. He knew he was quickly developing some unhealthy obsession with wanting to please Sebastian and he’d work on that soon. Once everything between them was patched up properly he would. He promised.

“Really? How?”

Sebastian blushed a little. “Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had sex…”

“... Oh! Okay.” He smiled and happily lead Sebastian to his room by his hand. It was true that they hadn’t done it since they had a fight. He hadn’t pushed it for obvious reasons after they started to mend their relationship. That would have been a one way ticket to getting dumped straight away. So he was happy when Sebastian brought it up first. Apollyon would do what he could to make his lover happy.


	55. Intertwined

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very much in a writing mood at the moment so have another chapter. First half of this chapter is pretty much smut and silly banter, then the rest is silly banter just because. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The two lovers stumbled slightly as they fell into the bed but both of them just seemed to laugh it off. Apollyon didn’t realise how much he missed this kind of intimate interaction with Sebastian. His skin was so soft and surprisingly smooth for a man. Apollyon could only assume that it was because of his life as a basement dweller. 

He didn’t mind though. He liked it. Apollyon liked the way that it contrasted against his rougher calloused skin. He knew that it wasn’t healthy to say he felt complete by being with another person, but that was how he felt. He felt complete being with Sebastian.

Suddenly Sebastian rolled Apollyon over onto his back. “I’m topping today.”

Apollyon was a little surprised by his sudden boldness but wasn’t going to complain. “Condoms and lube are in the top drawer.”

“I know that.”

“Just reminding you love.” Apollyon pulled Sebastian down into a kiss. Apollyon was no stranger to being on the receiving end of things. It had just been a while and for the most part when the two of them had had sex Apollyon took the lead. Sure Sebastian would have bouts of confidence and touch him without hesitation at some points, but inevitably Apollyon was the one that ended up wearing the condom. 

Not that he cared much about who topped whom in the first place. Who topped or bottomed had very little effect on his overall pleasure. He was more than happy to accommodate his partners preference. It felt good to try something a little different with his lover.

He loved how Sebastian’s fingers glided over his skin and how passionately he would kiss him. It was no surprise that their clothes quickly hit the floor. Apollyon didn’t realise it until now but he really missed seeing Sebastian’s body. Growing up he had had always heard people saying weird things about the people they found attractive having the bodies of gods or goddesses. He just never saw that. That was until he saw Sebastian. Sure he didn’t have the same muscle mass as a typical depiction of what one would consider a god, but he didn’t mind. Sebastian was perfect.

“... Why are you staring at me like that?” Asked Sebastian. He looked a little concerned. “It’s kind of creepy.”

“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how lucky I am to be here with you.” He leaned over and kissed him. “I know it sounds stupid and cheesy, but you’re my whole world Bastian. I love you so much.”

Sebastian blushed a little. “I love you too you dork. There’s no need t keep looking at me like that.”

“Like what? Like you mean the world to me?”

“... I will fuck you without lube if you don’t shut it.”

“... Okay you know just because I am a demon doesn’t mean I don’t feel pain and stuff right? There’s also a fifty-fifty chance my messed up body will grow teeth down there if you cause enough damage.”

“I wasn’t being serious. I’m not an idiot.” He kissed him again. “I’m not a sadist.”

Apollyon smiled up at him. “I know love.”

“... But seriously, you were joking about the teeth, right?”

He shrugged. “My lungs turned into wings a few weeks ago. Pretty sure I could grow teeth in my butthole.”

Sebastian frowned a little but started to prep Apollyon anyway. He seemed a little hesitant about somehow getting his fingers bitten off, which just made Apollyon laugh a little. It came out more as a breathy moan which made his lover roll his eyes. “And what’s so funny? Is your butt ticklish or something?”

“Nah, I just can’t decide if you’re worried I have butt teeth or if you just haven’t topped before.”

“...” Sebastian curled his fingers and made Apollyon yelp a little in surprise. 

From there no words needed to be spoken. No more witty banter or silly little jabs at one another and the two quickly fell into a rhythm. Soon the house was filled with lustful gasps and moans as Sebastian thrusted into his lover. If Apollyon had the vocal capacity at that moment he would have taken back what he had said Sebastian hadn’t topped before. He was good. Before he knew it he had reached his limit. Apollyon came with a cry and Sebastian quickly followed after him.

The two lovers laid panting next to one another for what felt like hours before Sebastian spoke up. “Huh, and I didn’t get my dick bitten off by you butt teeth. I’d call that a win.”

Apollyon rolled his eyes and lightly poked him. “Shut up. I don’t have butt teeth you dumb ass. I was just warning you… To be honest I have no idea what my insides would do if I did experience internal trauma. I guess it would be all demon like and stuff.... Damn I probably had a weird demon tentacle swirling around my guts at some point and didn’t even know… Weird.”

“... Huh.”

Apollyon shrugged and snuggled into Sebastian’s side. “My body is one huge fucked up mess… Do you think it would be better off if I was like, human?”

“Maybe. You wouldn’t get hounded by freaks and weirdos as much, right?”

“Yeah… So how are you going to get those cultists to leave you alone?”

“Talk it out diplomatically and then stab them with a sword if that doesn’t work.” There was also the third option of stabbing himself so he could get some weird demon power and throw them out of Pelican Town. Maybe he could go with them to Calico Desert and kick their crazy asses out and get Pam to gun it back to town? That would work too.

Sebastian nodded a little and started chewing on some nicotine gum. “Just get them out of here. Pelican town is weird enough without them messing around with things… Does salt repel cultists or is that just demons?”

“If you throw it hard enough I’m pretty sure it’ll repel anyone.” Apollyon frowned a little at that thought. “Rock salt to the eyes it a bitch.”

“... So salt doesn’t work against demons?”

“It’s more of a spirit repeller rather than a demon one. It’s more of an annoyance to us then something dangerous. Kind of like how you shouldn’t get petrol on your skin and should wash it off quickly. It’s an annoyance but nothing deadly.” He started to lightly kiss along Sebastian’s neck and shoulder. “You trying to figure out how to kill me or something?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “No. I’m just curious about you guys. You don’t really talk about what the Void is like. You just say it sucks and that’s it. Nothing much to go on.”

“...” Apollyon sighed and rested his head against Sebastian’s chest. “Sebastian, this isn’t something you can just start talking about… It isn’t a pleasant place to live and I… Do you really want to know about it?”

“Well, yeah. Of course I do. I’m curious.”

Apollyon couldn’t hold that against his lover. Anyone would be rightfully curious about that place. Even those who drew power from the Void never really knew what it was like. They only got glimpses at best. He didn’t want to scare Sebastian off with the truth of his home world. Then again he probably wouldn’t understand just how horribly messed up and disturbing it truly was.

“... Like Earth there are lots of different places with different types of natural and unnatural land.” Started Apollyon as he randomly traced his finger over Sebastian’s chest. “I didn’t go to many places but I heard of places that were made of green ice that dripped poison and twisted cities made of twisted and bloody metal. The place I lived… I guess it could be best described as a poison swamp.”

“You really lived in a swamp?”

“Well yeah, My natural demon form before this body was something that looked like a big sea slug.” He sighed a little as he reminisced about his old life. “The water we lived in was really muddy and none of us ever tried to get close to the edge unless we had to. We’re on the bottom of the food chain there you see so we get eaten a lot… We kind of just fall out of one of the many holes on this really freaking huge demon which I guess would be my birth mother and we just swim off… After this huge drought many of us quickly slithered off to find new swamplands to live in and that’s kind of how I know about most of the Void.”

Sebastian nodded a little as he slowly tried to understand what he was saying to him. “I see…”

“Yeah, it wasn’t a fun thing. From there I quickly learnt that I have very good regenerative abilities considering how many other demons would pick me up, take a bite out of me and then throw me away… It was really scary. Some smarter ones would keep a bunch of us in a jar and take a bite out of a few of us before putting us back…” He shuddered at the thought. “Can we not talk about this now? Please?”

“Of course… Sorry.” Sebastian wrapped his arms around Apollyon and gently squeezed him. “Didn’t mean to bring up those kinds of things.”

“Thanks…” He rested his head against Sebastian’s chest and sighed contently. “Can we just stay like this for a while? I’m tired.”

Sebastian nodded and yawned. “Yeah, okay. I’m tired too…”

***

Apollyon was right about the cultists. They had made a small makeshift home for themselves in a small patch of trees that Apollyon was yet to clear. They were trying to figure out how to seduce him into coming with them to their home for worship by the rest of their collective. And to be honest they were both really surprised that Apollyon hadn’t jumped at the chance to nail Lucy and other young women.

“... Maybe his partner is another demon?” Suggested Anton as he started crafting up a few field snacks for them to eat. “Some demons can be very protective of their lovers.”

“But most demons don’t even see us as compatible to other demons in terms of lovers.” Reminded Lucy. “That’s like someone claiming their boyfriend is cheating on them if they wack one out with their hand… What if their lover is a human?”

“What self respecting demon would be that fucking whipped by a human?” Asked Anton. “Like seriously, unless his lover was like top tier Void magic user or even Yoba magic user, no human could have him under their thumb. He’s an angel slayer demon. None of us have even come close to summoning one of those.”

“... Think he would be more receptive if we said we were open to orgies? Like, not all participants have to be humans. Just saying.”

Anton gave her a weird look and threw a field snack at her. “What the hell is wrong with you? If you’re so obsessed with sex I’m pretty sure no one is going to object to you getting a vibrator or like getting your hormone levels tested.”

She pouted at him and ate her field snack. “Like almost all female related Void magic is sex related because you know, opposite to Yoba magic being all about being pure and chaste and stuff. Also it freaks out and disgusts the normies.” She glanced over at Apollyon’s home and frowned. “... That person is still in there with them… What do you think they are doing?”

“Considering demons don’t go and flaunt their existence to regular people those two are probably watching a movie or something.” Anton didn’t have time for his sister’s paranoid attitude. “But you know, since you've started to become so crazy obsessed with the prospect of having a demon baby, why don’t you go over there and take a peek through the window?”

“... Fine. I will.” She quickly turned on her heels and ran over to the house.

Anton enjoyed his moment of silence. He did love his sister but sometimes she was worse that a sexually frustrated teenage boy. He just wanted to get this done and go home. He preferred the quiet life on the commune. Okay, fine, sure it was a cult and they did cult things like try to summon demons to impregnate women to birth a god to end the world, but it wasn’t like the women were unwilling. Lucy for example seemed to be down with the idea of getting knocked up by a demon.

Suddenly Lucy was back beside him looking thoroughly shocked. She sat down beside him and stared at the ground in an almost defeated manner. “... His lover is some weak pathetic human…”

“... What?”

“And he’s gay, so no demon babies…”

“... Okay?”

“And worst of all, he was letting the human top.”

“WHAT?!”

Lucy nodded, still looking utterly dumbfounded. “I know… this is just… You do realise this means you’re gonna have to be the one to try and seduce him now and not me, right?”

Anton visibly paled at the thought. “I don’t wanna get fucked by a demon or fuck a demon in the butt! I’m straight! I don’t do butt stuff!”

“Suck it up and try to take one for the team.”

“Let’s please try and come up with a different plan… I really don’t want to do that…”

“... Bitch.”

“Shut up.”


	56. Get off me farm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gonna be real honest with you folks, this is gonna be the last lighthearted chapter for a while. Next few are um... It's gonna get real dark real fast. But hey, t'is the spoopiest of seasons. Might as well get all the real dark spoopy stuff out of the way now, right? Also, shitty vine reference for a chapter title is shitty. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

When Apollyon got up the next day he was happy to see that Sebastian was still there sleeping beside him. He gently kissed his cheek and wandered out to the kitchen to make breakfast for them. Sebastian liked pancakes, right? Pancakes were a safe food to make. And by make he mean he had some instant pancake mix he needed to use soon.

As he watched the batter bubble in the skillet he went over in his mind what he needed to do. After feeding his chickens he was going to get those damn cultists off his farm. If he let them stay any longer he was worried they would start building cabins somewhere or maybe go on ahead and start to sacrifice his chickens. He didn’t want Butter or Crispy to go to the big chicken coop in the sky.

He hated how they seemed to be obsessed with worshiping him because they thought he could give them something he could not. He wasn’t a god. What on earth was a god anyway? The only real god he knew was Yoba and even then Yoba was an elitist prick.

If he was a god he would make it so he wouldn’t be. Too much of a burdon. Create a utopia but give it no free will than what’s the point? Create an imperfect world but give it free will and you get blamed for letting evil happen. It was a no win scenario.. 

If he could create a universe he would probably make a place for himself that existed outside of space and time where he could just exist. He didn’t really have any other kind want or need. The only thing he could think of that he wanted was Sebastian, but he knew his lover wouldn’t be happy going off with them off to some other plane of existence that existed for just the two of them.

He sighed a little and flipped the last pancake out onto the plate. He shouldn’t be bothering with those kinds of weird thoughts. He was trying to become human. The complete opposite of a god.

“Something smells good.”

Apollyon looked over at Sebastian, whom was standing in the bedroom doorway looking rather groggy. “Morning love. I’ll get you a cup of coffee in a bit. I made you pancakes.”

Sebastian nodded and slumped into a chair at the table. “... Shouldn’t I be cooking? You’re the one that took it up the ass last night.”

Apollyon laughed a little at how unfiltered Sebastian was in the morning without his coffee. “Babe, you gave me enough prep last night. Besides, this is my house and I know where everything is.” He gave Sebastian his coffee and pancakes and sat by him with his own food. “Maybe if we ever do it over at your place I’ll let you cook breakfast for me.”

It took a moment for Sebastian to understand the implications of what he just said and blushed a little. “What are you going to do today?”

Seeing an opportunity for mischief Apollyon had no choice but to take it. “Let’s see, tend to the chickens, water the crops, do a bit of foraging, you, kick the cultists off my farm-”

His lover almost choked on his coffee. “Wait, what did you say?”

“Get rid of the cultists?”

“No the thing before that.”

“Foraging? Summer’s almost over and I want to get me some spice berries. I love spice berry jam.”

Sebastian frowned at him for a bit before going back to his coffee. “Well go and hop to it. I want those weirdos off our farm by lunchtime.”

Apollyon’s heart fluttered in his chest. “... Our farm?”

“What?”

“You said our farm.”

“Did not.”

“Did so.”

Sebastian was quickly turning red. “Don’t you have cultists to get rid of?”

“Yes sir.” Apollyon happily kisses Sebastian’s lips and headed outside to get his axe out of his tool box. Sebastian had called it their farm. Not his farm. Their farm. Maybe he should consider finding that weird guy on the beach and getting one of those mermaid pendants? Of course he wouldn’t give it to Sebastian right away, but he would keep it close on hand for just the right moment 

With a small sigh he had to put those thoughts out of his head as he headed to the last patch of trees he hadn’t gone ahead and cleared yet. After a few harsh swings trees fell down and Apollyon found the cultists. They seemed pretty shocked that he had found them, but the two of them quickly fell at his feet with their faces staring directly at the ground.

“Please forgive us!” Cried Anton. “We meant you no harm!”

“We just want to worship you!” Whined Lucy. “Please let us do so.”

Apollyon muttered several expletives under his breath. “I am not going to your bloody commune, collective,cult land thing. And that is not an invitation for you and your mates to come here and set up shop. Get out of here.”

Lucy dared to glance up at him. “Will you please let us make our case once more my lord and master?”

“... I am not your god, dumbass.”

Anton muttered something and quickly jabbed his sister in the side. “Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot and have not sold you on our little bit of paradise, but we would like to at least give you some more accurate information. Please? We do not wish to anger you.”

As much as Apollyon just wanted to kick these crazies to the curb he figured that hearing them out one more time might convince them he wasn’t sold on their idea and they would fuck off. “Okay fine.Why should I go with you two to your little cult thing?”

With slight hesitation the siblings say up and Lucy looked up at him with an almost innocent look her eyes. “Well for starters you will obviously get your pick of whomever you wish to bed; age, gender, relationship status, species. It doesn’t matter it’s all your to have.”

“... I am not even going to dignify that was a response.” He looked at Anton. “You got anything better?”

“We’re a self sustaining group.” He said quickly. “Farming is what we do. You enjoy farming, you can do whatever you like. You can be in control of everyone who farms there. You can keep the best produce for yourself.”

“Kind of do that already buddy and I don’t have to worry about people fucking around on my property.” He really didn’t like anything they were telling him.

Lucy nervously squirmed under his gaze. “... We want to change the world by birthing your children into this world. If we do this than we can erase this world and start clean. Just imagine it, a world made just for you away from the blatant monsters that dared to try and stroke you down. The skulls of these oppressors would make fitting material for the foundations of the new world. We could open the floodgates and allow the rest of your kind into this world. This place could become an extension of the Void. Your home.”

The thought of ruling the world and bringing about the end times sickened Apollyon. And that wasn’t even mentioning the disgust he held for living in the Void in general. He wanted nothing more than for the two planes of existence to never merge. “You two disgust me so much. Get off my property now.”

“W-wait!” Pleaded Anton. “You can bring your lover with you if that will make you happy.”

“... What?”

“Y-yeah.” Anton looked very nervous. “Lucy saw you and your lover the other day… You can bring him with you. He would be treated very well. Just like a god too.”

This sort of idiocy deserved an award. He pulled the two of them to their feet and shoved them towards the bus stop. “Get the fuck off my land before I decide to chop you both up and use your bones to fertilize my crops.”

“If that is what you wish then I accept that fate.” Said Lucy with an almost lustful tone that made both men look at her with confused shock.

“... Get your sister some professional help!”

Anton nodded in agreement. “Yeah, planning to…”

Lucy huffed and quickly ignored that statement. “Anyway, we will worship you as a god. How can you not want that?”

“... Because there is no such thing as god. Not in the way you think it is. What is a god anyway? The one who made you? Then your mother is your god. Maybe it’s whomever took care of you? Your guardian then becomes your god. Maybe it’s a more material thing like money. For me a god is someone you love completely, fully and want to make happy everyday through whatever means possible. Your god will then see you and reciprocate those feelings. Those you think our gods that don’t love you the same way you love them don’t deserve to be your gods and you should discard them.”

It felt good to get that off his chest. Apollyon had come to his own realization through his own ramblings. If he really thought about he he could have been describing Sebastian. It wasn’t healthy to put him on such a high pedestal like that. But it wasn’t like he thought Sebastian was completely perfect or anything. He had faults like anyone did. But still, in his mind if he had to choose a god he would choose Sebastian.

“And since you want me to be your god I would have to love you and I can’t because I’ve given my love to someone else. I already have a god. So get the fuck off my property.”

That revelation seemed to enrage Lucy. “What? Are you talking about that pathetic human you’ve shacked up with? How can you love them and call them your god?”

Apollyon was glad his home was so far away from everyone. He could only imagine the weird looks people would give him if he lived in town while this was going down. “You don’t get to call him that you vindictive bitch.” He pointed his axe at her in a threatening manner. “I’ve fucking murdered an angel to protect him. I fucking died for him. Don’t think I won’t gut you right here where you stand for calling him pathetic.”

Lucy looked worried but to her credit she stood her ground and called his bluff. “You wouldn’t.”

“Lucy…” Muttered Anton. “Let’s just go. This demon doesn’t want to come with us. It’s not worth risking your life over.”

“Why? He’s bluffing. There’s no way he would ever actually hurt me. He’s just as pathetic as the human he let fuck him.” Snarled Lucy. “He’s weak and pathetic. Did you even kill an angel? You just like to brag and make up all kinds of lie-”

Before she could finish speaking Apollyon raked his nails across her face. There was a terrible throbbing in the tips of his fingers from where a set of razor sharp claws had slipped out from under his natural nails. He could have cut way deeper, completely stripping flesh from bone. However he felt leaving a few thin lined across her face would be good enough.

A dangerous growl ripped through his throat as he bared his teeth at her. He could feel his gums splitting painfully as his more demonic ones forced themselves into view, filling his own mouth with blood. “You want me to be a god? Fine. I’ll be a god. I’m the god of this valley and everything in it. I decide what can and can’t exist here in my valley and I have decided you two and other members of your cult are not welcome here. You two are diseases. Pests. Parasites. If I ever see you two or anyone from your cult in my valley again I will slaughter you. I don’t care who sees me I will end you.”

Lucy looked shaken but ready to mouth off again. Luckily for her Anton seemed to be the brains of this operation and quickly pulled her away. “We understand. Sorry for disturbing you. Hope you have a good day. We’ll make sure everyone stays the heck away from Stardew Valley.”

“Whatever.” Growled Apollyon. “Just fuck off… and what did you do with my Solar essence? I know you fuckers took it.”

“It’s over where we were staying!” Called Anton as he dragged his sister to the bus stop. Hopefully to never come back.

With a disgruntled sigh Apollyon headed back to where they were squatting and quickly looked through what they had left behind. He found his jar of Solar essence and about half a dozen field snacks. Hopefully this would be the last of the crazies for a while and he could concentrate on more important things. Like building a new barn, planning for fall, or getting hold of that damn mermaid pendant.

Without much of a second thought he tipped a few Solar essence into his mouth and bit down. The taste of petrol quickly mixed with the metallic taste of blood. It was disgusting and made him want to vomit. But at least now he could concentrate on trying to be human again.


	57. The Emo and the Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, time to get the pain train rolling. It's gonna be getting darker from here on out. Blame it on it being October. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Sebastian had always liked the train. When he had first moved to Stardew Valley it was by the train that ran through the mountains just next to the spa right by his house. About a year or two later the line was close to the public and redesignated for commercial use only. Still he would go up to the mountains and watch the train when he could. Usually he would smoke but since he quit he would stand around and chew his gum. He was considering getting a vape.It would give his hands something to do.

But he’d have to think about that a little later. Right now he was thinking more about something else. Apollyon was acting weird again. Maybe it was nothing, but he had been a little weird since he kicked the cultists off his farm. Sure he was still happy and friendly but he just seemed a little off. Maybe it was a demon thing?

He didn’t understand why Apollyon didn’t feel like he could talk to him about demon stuff. Sure he didn’t understand a lot of it but he would be happy to listen to him. That’s what friends and lovers did. It was kind of annoying that he felt this way, but to be fair Apollyon probably wasn’t used to talking about his demon problems with other people.

He sighed a little and walked along the track, kicking along a few stones as he did so. Maybe a train would come by and hit him? He used to think about those types of things when he was younger. In fact he did use to run up to the train when he heard it go by to try and jump in front of it. Maybe. It was an impulsive thought and he never really thought about what he would actually do if he did manage to get there before the train did.

As he thought this over he heard a bat screech and fly out into the afternoon light. That was unusual. Especially since he thought that bats just lived in the cave next to the adventurers guild. Curious, Sebastian walked behind the disused train station and to his surprise he found a small hole in the wall. Big enough for a person to walk in.

Wondering why he had never seen this place before Sebastian stepped inside. He stumbled a little on a loose rock and fell forward, landing on a loose gravel path in the middle of a swamp? This was different. He did not expect to find something like this in a cave. At the end of the path was a hut that Sebastian assumed belonged to the Wizard. Who else would have such a weird thing in Stardew Valley?

With an annoyed sigh he walked to the hut. He’d talk to the Wizard, tell him he happened to get a little lost and have the Wizard teleport them back to the train tracks.He couldn’t see him refusing such a simple request. Much to his surprise when he opened the door to the hut there was a green skinned woman carefully cutting the meat off of chicken bones. She looked equally surprised to see him there.

The woman frowned a little. “Bloody henchman’s on a bathroom break again… I don’t pay him to take a piss every half hour… So hello, my name is Morgana. I’m a witch.”

“... Wait, so there really is a witch in Stardew Valley?” Sebastian had always thought that was a local legend or fairytale. Apparently not.

Morgana frowned and crossed her arms. “Hey, I told you my name so tell me yours. Don’t be rude.”

“Right, um… Sebastian. Kind of didn’t mean to end up here. I live kind of close by and-”

“I know who you are.” Snapped Morgana. “You’re Sebastian son of Robin and some other guy. Your step dad’s Demetrius and your half-sister is Maru. You live in the basement of 24 mountain road and are friends with Sam and Abigail. You’re the dumbass that has the balls to date that demon farmer. I don’t need your life story jackass.”

“... If you knew all that about me why did you ask?”

“Because it is polite to tell someone your name when you tell them there’s.” She pushed the bones into a jar and wiped her bloody hands off on her apron. “So what are you here for? Dumbass demon out of Solar essence already? Need a refill or something?”

“... What?” Was this some other weird magic thing? Probably. Sebastian had no idea what on earth Solar essence was.

Morgana sighed dramatically. “This is why I don’t like dealing with non magic folks. You guys are dumber than a sack of shit.” She waved her hand and a small yellow orb with four point bits hovered off her shelf. “This. A Solar essence is the distilled positive energy that creatures aligned with Yoba tend to drop when slayed. Creatures with negative energy drop the opposite thing when slayed, Void essence.” 

“... Huh, right…” Void essence was what that Gar-dinner was trying to extract from them before. If they had Void essence inside them how come the general public didn’t know about it?

The curious expression on his face made Morgana grin. “Ah, so you’ve heard about Void essence then? I can tell by that look on your face.”

“Yeah… It’s been mentioned once or twice. Heard it said that normal people have Void essence in them…”

Morgana chuckled a little and waved her hand. A blackish, purple ord covered in curled spikes floated over to them. “Yes, all living things carry both Solar and Void essence within them. Non sentient beings have an equal balance of both because something like a tree is neither good nor evil. It simply exists. Sentient creatures like humans, apes, dolphins, and some species of sloth have different levels because they have the brain capacity to make up their own minds and their natural Yoba given will to do good or evil influences how much of each essence is inside them.”

“I see… Wait, did you say sloth?”

“Yep. Little known fact that sloths are some of the most evil creatures on the planet. They act all slow and cute to lull you into a false sense of security then get slit your fucking throat. Anyway,” she removed her apron and draped is across her table. “I’m sure you know that there is nothing inside a demon other than Void essence right? You know, I’m actually surprised that Apollyon doesn’t bleed this stuff. Guess he’s better at pretending to be human than I thought…”

“He isn’t pretending to be human.” Said Sebastian calmly. “As far as I’m concerned he is human.”

“Oh no, trust me. Something with that much Void essence in them is pretending to be human. No matter how much they deny it.”

“And how would you know that?”

Morgana rolled her eyes and casually leaned back. In an instant her broom zipped over and swerved so she was able to sit on it. “Look here you punk ass emo wannabe. I’m a witch that knows her Void magic shit. Do you even know what the twelfth sacrament is in the Twelve Void Sacraments is? What it involves?”

“... I don’t even know what a sacrament is.”

“It’s a thing you need to do to be considered a proper Void magic user. The Yoba bastards have the Twelve Sacraments of Yoba which is similar but stupid. Point is doing each sacrament is hard as nails to do and most people dip out before they get to the tenth sacrament. Too much of a physical and mental strain for most. Anyway, the twelfth sacrament is basically filling yourself with as much Void essence as the human body can physically handle and waiting out the effects. Could take days, months or even years for it to wear off. But when you’re done you have full access to the powers of the Void and know the insanity and danger you’re in when confronted with demons. I know how a demon feels and thinks because I was one for three months.”

Morgana looked over at her shelf and her broom casually glided over while she looked through several jars. She had a determined look on her face as she searched for something that she obviously thought was important.

It gave Sebastian a little time to think. Mainly he was curious about this whole twelve sacraments thing. It seemed kind of bizarre to him, but then again all magic was weird and bizarre to him. And to think all he did was follow where a bat came from.

“Ah! Got it!” Morgans took a jar off her shelf filled with a dark purple liquid. “Delicious pure Void essence. For the twelfth sacrament we would drink a whole jar of this stuff. Many people describe it as drinking super LSD. You see and hear some crazy messed up shit. Several people that have been possessed by a demon have claimed the twelfth sacrament are indistinguishable from one another” She smiled happily at the jar the glanced over at Sebastian. “Want to know how Apollyon feels every second of every day?”

He didn’t like the way she was smiling at him. “Um, no thanks. I’m good.”

The witch seemed almost disappointed to hear that, yet she still poured no more than a few drops into the world’s tiniest bottle. “Really? That’s a shame… Must be so hard for you two to connect. More power to you two for giving this interspecies thing a go, but if you two can only bond over human experiences I doubt it will last too long. Relationships are built on trust and understanding. How can you trust him if you do not fully understand him?”

Everything she was saying was making him feel uncomfortable. “Look, I should probably head home now…”

Morgana rolled her eyes and put the bottle in his hand. “Keep this. If you want to understand the way your lover thinks and feels, what he’s hiding from you, drink this. It’s only a few drops compared to the jar you’d need to drink for the twelfth sacrament so it’ll last only an hour or two… I suggest if you take it you drink it in the mines away from humans. If you don’t well… Wouldn’t be the first time someone murdered a bunch of people because of this stuff.”

“... Right.”

“Good. Now begon I have work to do.” She waved her hand and Sebastian felt something violently yank him backwards and he landed with a loud thud on his bed,

Sebastian groaned a little and rubbed his head. That hurt. A lot. He looked at the little bottle Morgana had given him and frowned slightly. So this thing was meant to make him a demon or feel like a demon? He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sure he knew that Apollyon was hiding things from him, but he didn’t know if he was willing to drink some mystery liquid to fully understand his boyfriend. He wasn’t sure if that was the best way to understand him. It kind of felt like a breach of privacy.

“... Not today.” He put the bottle into his desk drawer by his computer. He didn’t want to think about this now, but he was mildly interested to see if there was any information on the interest about the whole sacrament deal. If he couldn’t find anything he’d hit Abby up and see if she had a clue what Morgana was talking about.

***

After about two hours of searching the web he gave up and called Abby. Within what seemed like seconds Abby was over with Sam close behind. Though it seemed like Sam was being used like her personal mule since he was carrying everything.

She quickly spread out all her books onto Sebastian’s table and opened up several of them. “Alright so you want to know about Void magic? This got to do with Apollyon I take it?”

“Yep.” With a swift kick Sebastian rolled over to Abby while he was seated in his computer chair. Sam just ended up flopping onto Sebastian’s bed.

Abby cracked her knuckles. “Alrighty, so the sacraments are like these religious rights you have to go through if you want to be a proper Void magic user. Honestly, I’ve done the first five of them.”

Sam looked surprised. “You can use magic?”

“Not really, the first five are pretty easy to do.” She hummed a little in thought. “Let’s see, first five are; memorise the infernal alphabet, create a charm of protection, three hours of unbroken meditation, sleep in a graveyard, and um… something I’m sure you two don’t want to hear…”

Sam quirked an eyebrow. “Come on, tell us.”

Abby sighed. “Okay but don’t say I didn’t warn you… A burnt menstrual sacrifice. Which was really annoying because it’s meant to be a full cycles worth! I had to hide my used tampons in an ice cream container!” The boys looked disgusted. “You asked for it! Plus the guys equivalent is a week’s worth of jacking off.”

Sam and Sebastian still looked grossed out. “Imagine keeping a week’s worth of used tissues under your bed for that…” Muttered Sam. “So fucking gross…”

“Yeah…” Muttered Sebastian. He still couldn’t believe that Abby had done that. That was really gross and fucked up in his opinion. Heck all magic was weird and fucked up in his opinion.

Abby just took it all in her stride and waved it off. “Anyway the next seven are; astral projection, levitation, communicating with spirits through an ouija board, animal sacrifice, opening a rift between this world and the Void, contacting a demon, and becoming possessed by a demon. Do all that and you are able to truly channel the magic within the Void for your own uses.”

Sam frowned a little. “So, why haven’t you don’t the other things? Don’t you already have an ouija board?”

“Well yeah but you need to the sacraments in order and I have no idea how to astral project and I need stuff to levitate…” She sighed a little at that. “Plus I’m not a huge fan of like killing animals and that other demonic stuff. You interested in doing the sacraments Sebby?”

“What? No. I don’t want to learn magic… I just… I heard a little bit about the whole becoming a demon thing and it occured to me I could understand him more if I was like a demon for a little while…” He wasn’t too sure if he should tell his friends about Morgana being a thing. She seemed a little unhinged.

Sam nodded a little at this. “I see… So you’re doing that whole walk a mile in their shoes kind of thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Um… Probably should reconsider that one.” Said Sam in a concerned tone. “Look, when I hear someone being a demon and stuff, I think serial killers, murderers, rapists and all that messed up shit. Like I know that Apollyon isn’t like that at all, but let’s be honest he isn’t a demon. He’s just some dumb goofy guy that happens to have demon powers and junk.”

“Still a cheating prick.” Pipped in Abby. “I’m not gonna forgive him for this until like, maybe the end of Fall as long as he doesn’t fuck up again.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes at his friend’s comments. They were kind of dumb in his opinion sometimes. Especially when it came to Apollyon. They didn’t know him like he did. “He’s a shit demon that I have forgiven for the stupid shitty things he’s done. He isn’t malicious he’s just an idiot. That’s all.”

Abby shrugged. “Your funeral… You should make a charm or something to kill him if he gets too violent. Just for like your own protection and stuff.” Both boys looked slightly horrified she suggested that, “What? He’s a demon. I’m not taking any chances he goes nuts and decides to kill us all.”

“The Wizard probably has something in mind.” Suggested Sebastian. “He seems like the kind of guy that would do that… If he hasn’t already...” He didn’t like the thought of the Wizard knowing how to kill his boyfriend. It just didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t really know why though. Maybe it was just because he seemed so invincible? The motherfucker died several times already and came back like it was nothing after all. It would have to be something pretty powerful to keep him down for good.

Abby shrugged. “I see. Anyway, let’s sacrifice Sam.”

The usual ball of sunshine looked shocked. “What? Why?!”

“Because only I know how to do it and Sebastian’s boyfriend will be sad if we sacrifice him.” Clarified Abby. “Plus demons won’t want a grumpy asshole like Sebastian.”

“... Okay that’s fair.” Sam lied back on Sebastian’s bed with his arms splayed out. “Fuck me up for the dark lord.”

Abby nodded and grabbed hold of one of her books. “For the dark lord. Sebastian, go get me some rope and a knife.”

“Okay.” Sebastian wandered back upstairs and went to the kitchen. He wasn’t going to get her a knife or rope. She was going to have to make do with a few cans of Orange Fizz brand soft drink and a party bag of Salt and Vinegar chips.


	58. Not a demon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. This is the tipping point before all things go to hell. Hope you enjoy. Also I chose to portray the Dwarf as a woman because for a while I think I remember the dwarf was female by default in the code or some junk? idk. Either way I like the idea of the dwarf as a girl. Fight me. Kudos and comment when you can :D

Apollyon was still a little worried about those damn cultists coming back and messing with his life. Then again they seemed pretty freaked out by him when he snarled at them. Hopefully that was enough to make them leave for good. He didn’t need some spooky cultists making the fall season even more spooky.

“I just don’t get it.” Whined Apollyon. “I just, I know I’m a fucked up monster and stuff but come on people. Let me live my life in peace.” For the past hour and a bit Apollyon had been sharing a bottle of wine with the Dwarf. 

The Dwarf was one of the other magical residents that lived within Pelican Town. She had set up a small shop in a little side cave in the entrance of the mines that Apollyon had only recently discovered. They were generally quiet and liked it when Apollyon gave them gemstones. Seeing as how she were so quiet they were good listeners and generally didn’t mind Apollyon talking to them as long as he bought some bombs or an elixir.

“I know how you feel.” Said the Dwarf. “Sometimes I wish to have a peaceful life but people keep coming by and talking with me about nothing important… You gonna buy a bomb or what?” 

“... One mega bomb please.”

She took his gold and handed over the big red bomb. “Careful with this kind. You’ll blow your hands off.”

“... I once dropped one of these by mistake, screamed and got smashed against a wall.”

The Dwarf just sighed and shook her head. “You are a double idiot. Also if those cultist bother you so much hand them a lit bomb and run. Their skin isn’t strong like a dwarf. They would fucking die in a second.”

“... Why are you so psychotic?”

The Dwarf shrugged at him. “Dwarves have tough skin compared to human. Human are soft and squishy. Dwarves are strong and hard like iron. Bombs explode in our hands all the time and the worst we get is a cracked claw. See?” She held up her hand to show Apollyon her four fingered hand. Three of them looked perfectly manicured but one was cracked and chipped. “Broke off when I was handling a cherry bomb.”

“Huh. Okay. Your claws look very nice by the way. Every consider painting them?”

“... Paint? My claws? Why?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Humans paint their nails different colours and stick little decorations on them too sometimes. It’s one of those decorative over function things we do.” He took out his phone and showered her a few pictures of fancy nail art. “Human females are usually the ones that do this but more and more men are doing it too.”

The Dwarf squinted a little at the pictured on the screen and nodded with a bit of excitement. “Very fancy. So fancy. I like it… But probably not very practical for getting ores and making bombs… Some of the younger kids might like it. What is it called?”

“I think it’s called nail art. I can go and get you a few different bottles of nail polish if you like so you can try it out?”

“Yes please. Sounds fun. Impractical but fun. Can you get it in orange or red? I like those colours.”

“Of course. See you in a bit.” He waved goodbye to her and walked down the mountain. He made a quick stop at Pierre’s shop to pick up a few bottles of nail polish. He picked up some of the stuff that had glitter in it. He thought that she would like it.

On his way home he popped another Solar essence and crunched on it. Just the taste now was making his stomach tighten and twist uncomfortably. He had to be close to being partially human now. At least ten percent by now. If he wasn’t any closer to his goal he might have to think about giving up. It was starting to hurt too much. People would start noticing him acting like a walking disaster.

He sighed a little and retrieved his fishing pole from his tool chest and wandered down to Cindersap forest. He could spend the rest of the day catching a few fish and make some good money on that. Especially if he got some good quality ones. If he caught a few dozen fish he might be able to afford a new barn. His stretch goal for the year was to get a barn, a cow, and a goat.

He walked over to the pond and sat down on the pier. Fishing. He was going to fish all the fish. Fish, fish fishing… He’s only just cast the damn line and he was already bored to tears. This was dumb. It sucked and all he could think of was how board he was. If it wasn’t for the Junimo’s wanting fish he probably wouldn’t have started fishing in the first place.

As he waited for a fish to take hold of his bait he attempted to adjust his sitting position, only to feel like something had ripped open inside his stomach. Apollyon doubled over and gasped in shock. His insides were quivering uncontrollably and felt like they were liquifying. He worried that if he dared open his mouth everything would gush out.

The pain only intensified and made him fold in on himself even more. He whimpered and gasped, trying to swallow but found he was unable to. There was a stab of pain that tore through his body and in that moment it felt like his consciousness and his body completely separated. It was like he was watching a movie in first person. He watched as his fishing rod slipped out of his fingers, his body crumpled forward, and he fell head first into the pond. He sank to the bottom like a stone. Little black spots appeared in front of his eyes before everything went black.

***

When Apollyon next opened his eyes he was laying on a bed in Harvey’s clinic. He blinked slowly a few times before he pulled himself up, or at least tried to. His stomach felt like it was being ripped open and he let out an involuntary yelp of pain. Moment later Harvey came in. He looked worried as usual but a little relieved.

“Thank goodness.” He said. “Are you okay?”

“... I guess? What happened to me?”

“You almost drowned. I guess it was a good thing Jas saw you fall in…”

Apollyon blinked slowly as he took in when Harvey was saying. Jas probably saw him fall in and got Marnie or Shane to fish him out and take him to the clinic. He must have given Jas a horrible fright he’d have to try and make it up to her somehow. Shane mentioned she liked pink cake, right? He could make that for her.

He tried to get up again but Harvey gently pushed him back down. “I’m sorry Apollyon, but I have to insist that you stay here for a little while longer. With your recent medical history over the past year and with all the hard work you do on your farm you might be more hurt than you realise.”

If only Harvey knew the extent of the damage his body had gone through since he came to Pelican Town. “Look, I think you’re being a little dramatic there doc. I’m fine.”

“So that wasn’t you yelling when you woke up?”

“...”

“Thought so.” He sighed a little and pulled up a chair. “Apollyon, are you okay? I’m really worried about you. You might say you’re fine but there is something else, isn’t there? Where are you hurting right now?”

“... My stomach.” Muttered Apollyon. “My guts. It feels like someone’s gone and chewed them up. It hurts so much. I want to vomit but I can’t and it feels like I swallowed handfuls of needles.”

Harvey nodded a little and seemed to think over options in his head. “I see… Do you think you could have ingested some kind of poison or maybe something inedible by accident?”

“I don’t know…”

“Is it painful anywhere in particular?” Asked Harvey. He snapped on some rubber gloves. “May I?”

“... Go for it I guess?”

“Thank you.” Harvey lightly pressed around Apollyon’s stomach, taking note of any tender areas. He prodded around the areas of his gallbladder and appendix but that didn’t seem to cause him anymore discomfort than poking any other area. “... I highly recommend you get some scans done Apollyon. If you’ve eaten something it could be causing some real damage to you.”

“I’m fine doc. I don’t need any scans done.”

Harvey looked rather distressed when he said that. “Please Apollyon. This could be very serious. Don’t neglect your health like this. You have people that really care about you here in town.”

“... I know doc… Can I go home now?”

“No. Tonight you are staying here for observation.” Said Harvey sternly. “Being in so much pain that you pass out is not normal. Now either Maru or I will come by to check on you every half hour or so. Okay? So no getting up and trying to leave.”

“Fine… I’ll be good and stay.”

“Thank you.” Harvey got up and left Apollyon alone. 

It left Apollyon time to question his life choices and whether or not he had completely messed up somewhere along the way. Was it really worth going through all this shit just to get better? Was he even actually getting better? He didn’t know. Was it really better to be human or to be a demon? He didn’t know anymore. 

While he contemplated this Sebastian walked in, looking very distressed. “Thank goodness, you’re alive.”

“You think water can kill me? Really?”

“Shut up…” Sebastian sighed a little and sat by his bed. “Look, I’m just glad you’re okay… Apparently Shane pulled you out of the pond.”

“Huh. Okay. I’ll have to thank him later.”

“Yeah…” Sebastian seemed uneasy.

Apollyon frowned a little and reached over to him, lightly tapping his arm. “Hey. Something up?”

Sebastian gave Apollyon a weird look then stared down at the ground. “I just… I don’t know. I feel like you’re not telling me everything. Like, I think you’re hiding stuff from me. This isn’t normal. Even for you.”

That confused Apollyon a lot. As far as he knew he wasn’t hiding things from Sebastian. Nothing he thought was really important anyway. “I’m not.”

“... Do you know what a Solar essence is?”

“Those little yellow positive energy things? What about it?” Asked Apollyon. He didn’t know why Sebastian was asking about that. In general it was a pretty rare to find those things or find people that knew about them. He didn’t know why Sebastian was asking about it though. Maybe Abby was talking about it or something?

Sebastian continued to stare at the ground. “I just… Well, I went and met the witch. She had some very interesting things to say about you and stuff…”

Apollyon sighed dramatically. Of course Morgana was going to try and fuck over his life through Sebastian. She was just the kind of person to do this shit. “Just forget about whatever she told you about me. You shouldn’t worry yourself about magic stuff. Let me worry about that.”

“So I’m not allowed to worry about you because it’s magic stuff?”

“Huh?” He didn’t mean it like that. Apollyon didn’t understand why Sebastian was starting to get all worked up about this. “Calm down. It’s not that big a deal. Just forget about it okay?”

“... Was you almost drowning related to you being a demon?”

“... Sebastian, do we really need to talk about-”

“Answer the question.” Snapped Sebastian. “Are you passing out and drowning because of some magic demon thing?”

“Who told you I was passing out?”

“Why else would you fall over and fucking drown?”

Apollyon rolled his eyes and attempted to sit up, but it felt like something was trying to claw his way out of his stomach. “Fucking hell Seb, calm down. Why the hell are you so pissed off about this stupid bullshit? It doesn’t concern you at all. Just… fuck…” He collapsed back onto the bed, panting heavily. Everything hurt so much, he was frustrated, and he just wished Sebastian would just be happy he didn’t drown. “It’s a demon thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Because I’m not a demon?”

“Yes!” Snapped Apollyon as he glared at his lover. “You’re not going to understand me anymore than you can understand what it’s like to be a black woman growing up in the super white deep South.” His insides felt like they were twisting and turning and ripping apart inside him. He felt like he wanted to vomit but he had nothing inside him anymore. It hurt so much. “You can read and empathise but you’re never going to be a woman and you sure as fuck aren’t gonna be black. So just shut the fuck up. You’d never understand my thoughts or feelings no matter how hard you try. The fact of the matter is you aren’t a demon. That’s why I don’t tell you every little demon thing about me. Shut the fuck up.”

Suddenly the door opened and Maru cautiously looked in. “Is everything alright?”

Apollyon gritted his teeth as he started to dig his nails into the bed. “Morphine me!”

Maru sighed a little and quickly got Harvey. While the good doctor was injecting Apollyon with the drug Maru ushered her brother out. He didn’t object, in fact he seemed to storm out of there. Not that he could complain. Apollyon would have marched out of that situation too. He was an asshole and shouldn’t have said those things to him. Now he needed to apologies to Sebastian along with saying thanks to Jas and Shane.

***

Sebastian was pissed. Apollyon was such a fucking asshole. How could he say those things to him? He was just trying to help and wanted to understand what Apollyon was going through. Find out why he was getting so damn sick so suddenly. Apollyon didn’t get sick. Demon things happened to him.

He stormed into his room and angrily marched around. He kicked over a chair and kicked his empty trashcan across the room, enjoying the satisfying clank it made when it hit the wall. Now he felt like throwing something at the side of a mountain. Usually he’d post a request on the notice board but Apollyon was usually the one that did all the requests. That just frustrated him more.

To further try and vent his frustrations he picked up his pillow and screamed into it. Apollyon was a fucking dick head. A total cunt. An asshole. A douchebag. He had no reason to be so horrible and yell at him like that. He was just trying to be a good boyfriend and find out what was wrong with him. If anything he should be the one upset at Apollyon. The bastard had been hiding things from him.

“... Fucking son of a bitch. The fuck is wrong with that demon cunt? I’m not a demon so I won’t understand. Fuck off with that bullshit.” He walked over to his computer desk and took out the tiny bottle of Void essence that Morgana gave him. He stared at it for a solid three minutes as he tried to weigh up the pros and cons of doing this in his mind.

If he drank this he would have an experience that was akin to being a demon, if he believed that witch. Then Apollyon wouldn’t be able to whine and bitch that he couldn’t understand him. On the other hand Morgana did say he should drink it far away from humans. He assumed he’d act violently. 

Sebastian’s mind was made up. It’d take a day or two to prepare but he was going to do it. He was going to figure out exactly what was running through the mind of a demon whether Apollyon cared or not.


	59. Rage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Sorry this took longer than normal for me to post. This month and the next are gonna be busy for me. Also this chapter is longer than normal. Hope you enjoy it. This chapter is pretty messed up. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The next day Apollyon was allowed to leave the clinic, though it was more because Apollyon had agreed to get an ultrasound to see if there was something wrong with his guts. He’d cancel the appointment later. He knew what was wrong with himself. He was eating way too many Solar essence. He’d cut back on it for a while. He was just way too eager before.

Once he was out he went back to his farm and set about making a pink cake for Jas and pepper poppers for Shane. Hopefully they would accept this and not be too freaked out about what had happened. 

Luckily for him Shane seemed to be cool with it. He joked a little about how it was only fair since he did something similar last year when he drank too much and needed his stomach pumped. Jas was a little nervous but very relieved that Apollyon was still okay. She was really happy that Apollyon came by to give her pink cake though.

Once he had done that he had one more very important thing to do, he needed to go and say sorry to Sebastian. But he wasn’t going to do that until he went and got him a gift. Obsidian. He wanted to go to the caves and get Sebastian a large chunk of obsidian. First though if he was going to go down that deep into the mines he was going to have to get some supplies. Maybe buy some elixirs from the Dwarf before he went down? Harvey would have a fit if he got hurt again so soon.

***

Today was the day. Sebastian had been thinking about it all night and he was going to do it today before he chickened out. He had considered using one of his medieval replica maces when he went to the mines, but he decided against it. It was pretty damn expensive. So instead he went to the adventurer's guild and bought a wicked kris dagger from Marlon. The old man had said it was made from an iridium alloy. It looked sharp and good enough to use in case he got attacked by any monsters in the mines.

He walked to the cave and stood in front of the elevator. He was a little nervous and was starting to have second thoughts about this, but when he put his hand into his pocket and touched the bottle he steeled his nerves and made up his mind. He was doing this.

“Alright… Which floor?” He looked at the buttons in the elevator, surprised to see that every button of the one hundred and twenty floors was lit up. He had been to the mines several times and had never seen every single button lit up. He could play it safe and stick to floor ten or fifteen, but he was mad at Apollyon and making horribly bold choices today. 

He got into the elevator and hit the button to go to floor one hundred and fifteen. The elevator rattled and started to descend at a relatively fast pace. He looked out the barred door at the rapidly changing floor. It went from being all earth, to being kind of greed with weeds, to dark and and kind of cold, to freezing and covered in permafrost, to slabs of frozen stone, then it quickly heated up with lava seeing through cracks, to finally a dark red floor that just seeped danger from every crack in the rocks.

Taking a deep breath Sebastian stepped out and took in his surroundings. There didn’t seem to be in the way of monsters, so that was good. He took the bottle out of his pocket and carefully looked it over. He could still back out now if he really wanted to.

“... Fuck it. I’ve come this far.” He uncorked the bottle and tipped the few drops of liquid into his mouth. It tasted like someone had infused liquorish with salt. It was gross. He was pretty damn sure that Morgana had tricked him or something at this point.

Suddenly his balance was completely thrown and he entered a state of constant vertigo as the cave walls and floor started to twist and spin in unnatural ways. Unable to find his balance Sebastian fell to the floor and screwed his eyes shut. His head was swimming and his heart was starting to hammer in his chest.

“F-fuck!” His breaking became laboured and he tried to pull himself to his knees. He slowly opened his eyes and was relieved to see that everything had stopped spinning and apart from his heart beating like crazy he didn’t feel any different. And that… that pissed him off.

He was supposed to feel like a demon. That witch had said he would know what a demon would feel like. Damn it he had done everything in his power that he could think of to try and understand what on earth Apollyon was going through but he got nothing out of it. Absolutely nothing.

From somewhere off in the cave he heard the tiny screech of a bat, but ignored it. He was still too pissed off at Apollyon. The stupid demon just couldn’t go ahead and talk about what was going wrong with him. He was just some stupid human that didn’t have the brain capacity to understand this kind of thing. Which was bullshit. He was probably one of the smartest people in the whole valley.

The screeching grew louder and louder and made Sebastian snap out of his thoughts and mindlessly slash at the air. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Much to his surprise had managed to deliver a fatal blow to a lava bat. The small flying rodent was almost completely cut in half. The dagger was ridiculously sharp.

He looked down at the blade and watched the blood roll off it and onto the ground. He’d actually killed something. He knew he should probably feel shock and maybe a little disgust at himself seeing as how this was his first ever kill, but he didn’t. If anything he was just surprised at how easy it was. It couldn’t really be that easy, could it? It was laughably easy.

Suddenly he heard that distinct gooping sound only a slime could make. That sickly sticky sound. Damn it the sound of a slimes was just as annoying as a stupid bat screeching. It was like nails on a chalkboard to him.

Gripping the dagger tightly Sebastian walked over to where the slime was. This red slime made a beeline right for him and jumped. Sebastian slashed at it and knocked it back. It made him smile when he realised the slime wasn’t going to go down so easily. This was fun. He continued to slash at the slime, loving how easily his dagger slid through its body, but when it eventually fell apart with a splat Sebastian was disappointed by lack of blood. The slime just looked like strawberry jam.

Apollyon wouldn’t disappoint him like that. If he cut into that stupid demon he’d bleed. He’d bleed a lot. That would be good. He’d like that. Apollyon wouldn’t die nearly as fast as these monsters. He could probably stab and cut at Apollyon for hours and he wouldn’t die. That bastard. That stupid bastard that didn’t think he knew anything about being a demon even if he explained it. Fuck him. Fuck him with a knife. Now that was an idea.

Before he could further explore that depraved idea in his mind he heard another screech and was swooped by another lava bat. Sebastian ducked out of the way and slashed at the flying rat. One, two, three time he had slashed at it and three times it dodged. The fourth time though, the fourth time he got it and it hit the ground with a splat.

Hot, wet blood struck his face and Sebastian let out a sickening laugh. This was fun. Killing these stupid things was fun. He loved stabbing something like a slime with a lot of stamina but it needed blood to make it really good. He needed more. More blood. More killing.

Is this what demons felt like all the time? Did Apollyon feel this when he looked at him? Just thinking about his lover made him want to stab him and rip out his guts. Stupid fucking demon. He hated him, but he loved him too. He loved him so much he wanted to kill him. 

He growled a little and started to pull at his hair. Stupid fucking demon. Fucking son of a bitch. He was going to kill him. Really kill him. Fuck he needed to kill something. Anything. He just wanted to kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a rock move ever so slightly. His heart started hammering away in his chest when he saw that. Something living. Something alive. Something he could kill. He could kill it. He was going to kill it. Kill that fucking rock crab good. Flip it over and stab it till its shell and insides turned to a gruesome crab mush. That thought made him giggle.

Yoba, he was a monster now. A real fucking monster. No, a demon. This was what demons felt all the time. This anger, this rage, this sadistic joy. It was unending. All he wanted was to just keep hurting and attacking anything and everything that moved.

***

With a small smile on his face Apollyon walked to the mines and over to the Dwarf’s shop. He handed her the nail polish he had promised her and took some time to consider if he should get a life elixir or an oil of garlic.

“Mining seems to be popular today.” The Dwarf mused.

“Hmm? Did Clint or Marlon come this way?”

The Dwarf shook their head. “Nope. Younger guy. About so tall, white as a grub, hair black as a Shadow Brute. He worse dark clothes too.”

“... Sebastian?” He had no idea why Sebastian would want to be in the mines right now. He didn’t even think he went into the mines at all. Hell he was pretty sure the heaviest tools Sebastian ever picked up were the tools to fix his motorbike.

The Dwarf shrugged at the name. “I guess? I don’t pay attention to those kind of things. Either way I saw them go all the way down to like floor one hundred and fifteen or something… Hope they don’t get their asses kicked down there.”

“Didn’t you sell them something?”

“Why? They didn’t come over to buy anything from me.”

A chill ran down Apollyon’s spine and he quickly poleted for the elevator and jumped in. He only just heard the Dwarf yell out that he forgot his backpack but at this point he didn’t care. He was worried about Sebastian. Why would he go down so deep into the mines? Didn’t he know there were really dangerous monsters down there? He could be really hurt or injured. He could be dying down there.

Apollyon felt his heart stop as soon as he got off on the elevator. It was surprisingly quiet and he didn’t like it. “Sebastian! Are you here? Please answer me! I need to know you’re alright!” He heard something moving near the far off parts of the cavern and quickly ran towards it, taking not notice when he stepped on a small glass bottle or when he saw random bits of dead monsters sliced up around the place. “Sebastian!”

The man in question was standing over a dead lava crab, panting heavily. Dark patches of monster blood covered his hoodie and pants.He didn’t seem injured but that could have just been the adrenaline pumping through his body after getting into a fight. He looked over at Apollyon and smiled a little, wiping some slime off his face.

“Hey Apollyon. What are you doing here?”

“…” Apollyon didn’t know why but there was something that felt off about his lover right now. Well there was no time for that. He could figure out what that was later. “Me, what about you? Come on we need to get out of here and get you checked out by Harvey.” He started to walk towards the elevator but stopped when he realised that Sebastian wasn’t following. “Seb?”

Sebastian giggled a little and shook his head. “I-I can’t. Not now. Not now… I have to stay here for a little bit longer… I’ll be out in a bit so just leave me okay? I’ll be fine. Be fine…”

“... Sebastian? What happened to you?”

An unsettling giggle managed to make its way out of Sebastian’s mouth as he started to tremble and clutch at his head. “Stupid. Stupid. Fucking idiot… I just wanted you to talk to me but fucking no. I’m not a demon. Not a demon so… So when I talked to the witch she gave me something so now I know what it’s like to be a demon… And guess what?”

“... Oh Bastian, what did she do to you?” He was going to kick Morgana’s ass when he next saw her. Hew dare she give him something dangerous. “Look, whatever she gave you it can be fixed. We can go talk to the Wizard and-”

“It feels amazing!” Cried Sebastian. He threw back his head and started to laugh like a madman. “You feel like this all the time? Seriously what the fuck is wrong with you? Why the fuck are you a farmer when you can do literally anything you set your fucking mind to? I can see why demons are known for being murderers and rapists and cannibals now. It’s all about control and the power you can have other another living creature. Mind you I’ve only been able to do the murder part right now but with the state I’m in right now… I literally can’t see a downside to the other things… Fuck it let’s go outside and burn the fucking town to the ground.”

With the way Sebastian was acting he wouldn’t be surprised if Sebastian was being serious about burning the town to the ground. Also whatever Morgana had given him had completely overloaded his system. This wasn’t how a real demon acted. This was how a psychopath having a psychotic break acted. The only time he saw demons acting like this was when they got into fights or were hunting. Apart from that they were just generally assholes.

“Sebastian, you’re not acting like a demon.” Maybe he could try reasoning with him. He might calm down and if he did, Sebastian could knock him out and get the Wizard to look at him. “I know you probably think that’s what a demon acts like but that’s not true.”

“Yeah, I figured that much.” Sebastian attempted to wipe some more slime off his face as he started to walk towards Apollyon. “These feelings and emotions I have right now are what you’re feeling all the time right? You just know how to control it.” He started giggling again and shaking slightly. “You know I finally get why people were saying we wouldn’t work out… If you feel the same way about me when I look at you right now I just… It feels insane that we’ve been together as long as we have.” He almost doubled over as his fit of giggles quickly turned into laughter again.

Apollyon sighed a little and walked over to Sebastian. He crouched down and carefully tilted Sebastian’s head up so they were face to face. “Sebastian, everything you’re saying right now isn’t you. It’s whatever Morgana gave to you. Come on. Let’s go see the Wizard and get you fixed up.”

Sebastian trembled a little under his touch and gritted his teeth. “Tell me the truth… When you’ve been looking at me do you feel the same way as I do now?”

“...” Without even thinking Apollyon pulled Sebastian into a hug. “Sebastian… I have no idea what you’re feeling right now, but I can assure you that right now all I’m feeling for you if love because you are the most important person in the world to me. I love you and I got so worried when I found out you were down here.” He kissed him and tried his best to give a reassuring smile. “Let’s get going Sebastian. We can hang out on my farm till you are better.”

Sebastian cast his gaze down at the ground as he slowly seemed to calm down from whatever maniacal high he was on. “... Okay.”

Apollyon helped his boyfriend to his feet and started to walk back to the elevator. He couldn’t help but feel responsible for this. If he was just more straight forward with Sebastian and not hide his demon things from him than he wouldn’t have done something so crazy and stupid. He would have to make it up to him somehow.

Before they got to the elevator Sebastian suddenly stopped walking. “H-hey Apollyon? I got another question for you....”

“Yeah?”

Sebastian nervously gripped at his arm and started breathing heavily again. “I… Fuck this is so hard to talk about… These emotions I’m struggling to control right now… Y-you feel this all the time right? Demons must have very strong wills not to just go batshit crazy and hurt everyone they see huh?”

“I guess… I’ve always done my best to control my emotions. It’s not always easy but it has to be done if you want to live as a human.”

A nervous laugh escaped Sebastian’s mouth. “I-I guess humans are fucking awful in your eyes then huh? We aren’t durable at all, die in less than a hundred years, and we can’t control our impulses no matter what we say or pretend… I just…” He made a weird noise that kind of sounded like a sob mixed with a yelp. “I-I-I can’t… I can’t do it… I’m not like you…”

Apollyon really hoped that Sebastian wasn’t going to have some emotional breakdown. He wasn’t sure he could deal with something like that. He put his hands on Sebastian’s shoulders and gently cupped his face in his hands. “It’s okay love. You don’t have to do anything, and it’s okay that you’re not like me. I love the fact that you’re nothing like me. The less like me you are the more I like you.”

“... You really mean that?”

“Of course I do.”

He sighed contently and leaned into Apollyon’s hands. “Then it’s okay for me to do it? You’ll still love me even if I can’t stop myself? At this point I don’t think I can anyway.”

“Stop wh-” Apollyon’s sentence was cut short when he felt a sharp pain pierce his stomach. Nothing really new to him at this point, but the thing that really got him was that the source of the pain was coming from a stab wound. A stab wound that Sebastian had inflicted on him with a dagger. He staggered back a little when Sebastian pulled the blade out and wiped it across the back of his hand.

“Hmm? I know your blood is red and all but I would have thought that it would have been a little bit black you know? You being a demon and all.” He moved to sab Apollyon again but this time he caught his hand.

He was so shocked at what his lover was doing. “Why?”

“I… I don’t know.” The hand Sebastian was holding the dagger in was trembling slightly. “I just… I love you so much and you’ve just pissed me off so much over the past few days. I just… I want to fucking kill you because I love you, you stupid fucking idiot. Everything I’ve done I’ve done it because I’m so fucking pissed off at you I can’t stop myself.”

Looking at Sebastian’s face he could see the hurt and pain written all over it. He was going through mental anguish at this point by the look of things. He was almost tearing up for crying out loud. It hurt Apollyon to know that the source of Sebastian’s pain was him. It was always going to be him wasn’t it? In the end it didn’t even matter he was trying to keep Sebastian safe in his own way. He hurt him and he kept hurting him. If this was the only way he could atone for his sins he would do it.

He steadied Sebastian’s hand and directed the tip of the blade just below his ribcage. “I understand… A demon’s anger is hard to quell by a forgive and forget mentality. I’ve seen demons who have been lovers for centuries rip each other apart over the dumbest of things. Do what you think is necessary.”

Sebastian clenched his teeth and gripped the handle of the dagger tighter. “Don’t you fucking get it? I want to stab you to death. I already got one stab in. I won’t be able to stop myself if you let me go now.”

“I know.” Apollyon slowly started to guide the blade into his flesh, flinching at the pain. “And I’ll just keep coming back. No matter how many times you kill me I’ll come back just for you to torture me to death again. I can do that as many times as you need me to till either your anger towards me is gone or you get tired of murder and want to move onto one of the other depraved activities you think demons enjoy.”

“... Why the fuck do you have to be so fucking selfless you fucking idiot!” Snapped Sebastian as he slammed Apollon up against the cave wall and started stabbing him repeatedly in the stomach. “I’m going to keep fucking killing you and not even feel bad about it! How the fuck can you be so calm and accepting of it? What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re a fucking suicidal nut job!”

Apollyon whimpered and did his best to stay standing, but it was difficult. He was scared and in pain. He knew better than most that humans were capable of some of the most disgusting and depraved acts imaginable, but it was scary that Sebastian was doing this against him. “I-I love you…”

***

Sebastian didn’t get it. How the hell could Apollyon be this damn calm? He was killing him. He was fucking killing him. It was infuriating. People shouldn’t be this damn calm when getting stabbed. He should be scared, crying, fighting back, something. Sure he was tearing up and crying a little but that was quickly becoming boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring.

“Shut up damn it. How the fuck can you love me or even say that you love me?” Asked Sebastian as he twisted the knife. “I’m killing you. I’m fucking killing you right here. How the fuck can you still love me?”

Apollyon coughed up some blood and tried very hard to stay standing, but he was quickly losing the fight. He must have cut into an artery or something major because he was quickly becoming more pale and sickly. His eyes were quickly becoming unfocused. “B-because I know you… This isn’t you… But I messed things up for you so badly…” He cringed a little and let some blood run freely from his mouth. “I’m never going to see Yoba and be judged by them… If I have to be judged by anyone I’m glad it’s you.”

Sebastian gritted his teeth and stabbed Apollyon in the chest. “Shut up! I’m not fucking judging you you fucking idiot! I’m pissed at you! You made me do this! I just wanted to know more about you! You never want to tell me anything about you. You say stuff about the Void but it’s always so vague and you never talk about you! What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you trust me? Why? Just fucking why?”

He pulled the knife out and watched Apollyon’s body slowly slide down the wall and collapse into a bloody puddle on the floor. His eyes were completely glazed over and he wasn’t breathing. Sebastian took a few deep breaths as he looked down at him. Apollyon wasn’t as fun to kill as he thought he would be. It was kind of disappointing. 

He looked towards the elevator and a sick grin spread across his face. He could go into the town and have fun with the people there. He couldn’t help but start laughing at the thought of seeing the look on Sam’s face when he strangled that spiky haired fuck with a guitar string, or Abby when he shoved her planchette into her eye. Hell, he could probably scrape the damn things out if he tried hard enough.

As he started to walk towards the elevator Apollyon grabbed his leg. “W-wait!” He croaked. Every damn syllable he said seemed to cause him pain. “Where are you going?”

Sebastian looked down at his lover, he was all cut up and bloodied. He had to admit, he was getting immense sadistic satisfaction from seeing him like this. He giggled a little and happily twirled the dagger around in his hand. “You want some more? You’re a masochist at heart, aren’t you?”

Apollyon tried very hard to sit up and keep eye contact with Sebastian. “Bastian… Until you’re back to being you I-I’ll be whatever you need me to be… Just please… stay with me… please…”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and kicked Apollyon hard in his torn up stomach. He almost let out a joyful sound when he saw a small fleshy chunk fell out of his lover and hit the ground. “Begging me to stay huh? You want me to keep judging you and stabbing you? Ya think I want to be your judge?”

His lover looked extremely dazed and like he was going to pass out at any second from a second bout of blood loss. How the hell did he have anime protagonist levels of blood in him? Demons were weird. 

He just smiled up at Sebastian and spoke with slurred confidence. “You’re not my judge. Sebastian, you’re my god.”

Sebastian stared down at his lover. He was extremely confused. He had no idea why Apollyon was acting like this. Obviously the blood flow to his brain was less than good. He wouldn’t have said something so stupid if was thinking normally. His confusion just made him feel more frustrated, and his frustration just pissed him off even more.

“Fine. You want me to be your god? Punish you for all your fucking sins? I’ll be your fucking god.” He kicked Apollyon in the face knocking him flat onto his back and started to stab him again. He didn’t really care what part of Apollyon he was stabbing as long as he was stabbing him. His rapid regeneration would heal him after a few minutes anyway and he could stab him all over again. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you over and over again. I’ll fucking kill you.”


	60. Repercussions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this chapter folks. Things are still bad for our leading couple but they will pull through this... Most of them will pull through this. Apollyon's kind of here and there at the moment lol. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

It was warm and quiet. Sebastian’s body felt stiff. He must have fallen asleep at his computer again. What happened before, was that just a bad dream? Of course it was. It had to be. There was no way he could do something like that or actually even consider going through with some of his more twisted thoughts. He was still a bit sleepy but if he didn’t get up soon he probably wouldn’t catch Apollyon until late.

He opened his eyes and felt a chill run down his spine.He was sleeping on the cave floor in the mines. Quickly looking around he could see a few bat corpses and something that looked like a bloody drag mark across the floor. He looked down at his hands and was horrified to see that he was holding his dagger. It was still dripping with blood and some kind of dripping sinew.

“N-no…” He whispered in a trembling voice. “I… I did this?” Sebastian couldn’t believe that it was true. How could it not be a dream? Those things he said and those things he did. Apollyon would be… He felt like he was going to be sick. He had killed him. Over and over again with his own two hands, but if that was true then the other things he did to him also happened. 

In a panic Sebastian got up and quickly followed the bloodied drag marks. He didn’t move him at all. Apollyon must have dragged himself away. He stepped around a corner and stepped on something slimy. He jumped a little in shock when the thing writhed and recoiled a little under his foot. It looked a little like an intestine but it it had a line of malformed teeth along one side.

His eyes followed the trail and eventually landed on Apollyon. His convulsing form was slumped over a large rock, his body was bathed mostly in shadows. He still looked relatively human but something was obviously wrong. “Shit. Apollyon… I’m so sorry… I…” He had no idea what he could say or do to fix this. What he did it was a truly unforgivable act. 

“... You’re back to normal now?” Asked Apollyon quietly. He sounded like he was struggling to speak louder than a whisper. “I’m glad.” He tried to move but only succeeded in making a chunk of his arm meat fall off and hit the ground. “Shit… Regenerating is pretty slow this time…”

Sebastian swallowed thickly. He felt like complete shit. He did this to him. He hurt him this badly. How the heck did he go and hurt him this badly? Sebastian had no idea what he was meant to do at this point. He didn’t mean to hurt him like this. He didn’t. Really. What was he meant to do now?

Apollyon hacked up something thick and slimy. “... Sebastian, can you get something for me?”

“Y-yeah. Of course.” He’d get Apollyon whatever he needed.

“Go back up to the entrance of the mines and go to this little cavern on the left. There’s a dwarf there. She’ll sell you a thing called a life elixir. It’s in a pink bottle… I left my backpack up there. There’s money in it… Please get one for me…”

“Y-yeah… I’ll be back soon.” He quickly ran towards the elevator and almost started to desperately mash the button for the ground floor. Yoba he felt sick. He felt completely disgusted with himself. He hated what he did to Apollyon. He hated that he went and did this to him. What’s more, he hated that Apollyon didn’t fight back. He could have stopped him. He really could have. Why didn’t he?

***

When Sebastian was gone, Apollyon let out a small sigh. He felt like he had gone through hell and back repeatedly. He was going to kill Morgana for what that bitch did to Sebastian. Whatever she had given him had worn off now, thank Yoba, and now he had to come to terms with what he did. This was going to really fuck with his head because it sure as hell fucked with Apollyon’s head.

Sure he could have interpreted it as some kind of divine atonement. In fact that’s what it felt like. It’s what he deserved. If he was a human and died Yoba would have probably punished him in a similar way. It was what he deserved. Getting stabbed over and over again. Having his muscles stripped clean from his bones.

In any other situation he would have gone and fought and lashed out at whoever had the balls to try and hurt him. But there was no way he could do that to Sebastian. No matter what state of mind he was in. He could never bring himself to physically harm his lover. He just had to endure it. After all everything he considered wrong with Sebastian’s life at the moment was his fault.

He sniffled a little and tried very hard not to cry. He never thought he would see Sebastian so angry at him. It was all his fault. He didn’t think that keeping these things from him would have made him so angry. It was like he was being attacked by an actual Void creature. Though if that were the case the monsters there would have just taken a bite out of him and then thrown him away. Sebastian just kept stabbing him till he got tired and passed out.

How could he fix this situation? Everything as his fault. He deserved this kind of punishment. What kind of good had he done in his life? Every day he was just bringing the people he liked closer and closer to ruin. The longer he stayed with his his mum the more strain he put on her marriage with Colt. Sure he was a bastard and he hated him, but he was a decent human being and loved his mum so much. They marriage only got stronger when he left that house. 

And now he was bringing ruination onto Sebastian’s life in a more detrimental way. He thought he had found someone he could love and protect but that wasn’t really the case at all was it? He just planted the seeds of rage deep within his lover and just waited for it to produce fruit. Now Sebastian had a damn good idea about the dark thoughts that would swirl around in a demon’s mind.

“... It would just be better if I never existed at all.” 

Apollyon slowly sat up, cringing at the pain that wracked his body. He wasn’t as strong as he used to be. The Solar essences really were changing his body ever so slightly. At least now he had a bit of an idea as to why he was getting such vicious stomach pains now. The Solar essence was literally ripping up his insides and as a result his body was breaking apart and trying desperately to heal itself. Unsurprisingly his body’s idea of healing itself involved saw-like teeth and painful muscles.

Panting heavily, Apollyon started to try and pull any of his exposed organs back into his body. He was glad that Sebastian only saw him slumped over a rock. He would probably be horrified to get a good look at his handy work. 

“... Shit.” He took off his shirt and tore it into strips. It wasn’t so that he could make a proper bandage for himself, his clothes were too bloodsoaked for that now. He just wanted to keep his insides on the inside until he his body decided to start healing properly and grow some damn skin back.

When he had done that he tried to pull his fringe over the side of his face that got mutilated in Sebastian’s rage. He didn’t think much of the skin had grown back and he didn’t want Sebastian to see it. Heck, he didn’t want Sebastian to see him at all. He probably looked disgusting right now. He hardly even looked like a demon at the moment. He probably looked more like a zombie than anything.

He whimpered a little and slowly pulled himself to his feet and started to shuffle his way back to the elevator. Maybe he could get into it before Sebatian could get back in it. He’d take it up to one of the floors closer to the surface, wait for Sebastian to go down and then make his escape back to the farm where he wouldn’t have to see him again. His existence was pain and suffering for everyone around him.

Maybe he should consider moving in with that cult? They would worship him, give him whatever he wanted and all he really had to do was knock up a crazy woman once in a while. He doubted such an actual human-demon hybrid would actually carry to term or even survive for very long, but why the hell not at this point? If he fucked up their lives those people they would probably think that it was a blessing. Proof that he was a powerful demon worthy of worship.

He got close to the elevator and sighed sadly when he saw that the elevator was seconds away from reaching him. The door suddenly opened and Sebastian quickly went over to him, elixir in hand. “Are you okay? You shouldn’t be standing. The Dwarf gave me this I um… I hope this is what you need. Is it what you need? You said pink bottle right?”

Apollyon nodded and took the elixir. He quickly drank half of it and poured the rest on it on any of his opened wounds. “Thanks… I appreciate it.”

“... I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Apollyon shuffled towards the elevator and ended up leaning against the wall. He felt so damn tired now as the elixir slowly started to work its magic on him. He needed to lie down and sleep. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I need to sleep…”

Sebastian got into the elevator with him and hit the button. For the first ten or so floors they were both quiet but eventually Sebastian spoke up. “I’m so sorry… I’m sorry I-I didn’t meant to I just… I… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Said Apollyon quietly. “It’s all my fault.”

“It’s not. I’m the one that fucking killed you!”

Apollyon laughed a little and shook his head. “You saying you would have done something like that if I wasn’t here? Look, I didn’t want you to worry about me… I’m just a fuck up… I’ve fucked up your life.”

“What? No you haven’t.” He reached over to Apollyon. “I shouldn’t have done th-”

“Don’t touch me!” Apollyon pressed himself up against the side of the elevator. He was struggling to stay standing upright. “Just… Please… I’ve messed you up enough already… You don’t need to be tainted by me anymore.” Just being this close to him Apollyon felt like he was just messing up more and more of Sebastian’s life. “I’m so sorry…”

***

This whole situation was completely fucked up. Sebastian was the one that hurt Apollyon. He should be sorry but here Apollyon was apologizing for just existing. And so what if he was tainted somehow just by being with Apollyon? Sure that fucking angel had said he was tainted too, but he couldn’t care less.

Now he’d gone and hurt Apollyon so badly that he wouldn’t even let him touch him. Sebastian had no idea what he was meant to do with this. He fucked him up so badly. He could remember plunging that knife into him over and over again. Why the hell couldn’t he stop himself? Demons were just creatures that couldn’t control their base need to cause pain and suffering.

Despite all the confusing and conflicting feelings that were swirling through his head he needed to try and do something to help Apollyon. But he had no idea what to do in the long run. Short term he needed to get Apollyon home. Once he was home he could figure things out.

When they got to the mine entrance Sebastian wondered how on earth he was going to get Apollyon back to the farm without being seen. As he pondered this Apollyon walked past him and slowly limped over to the disused mine cart and fell in.

“Shit, are you okay?” He quickly ran over to him but Apollyon just waved him off. 

“It’s fine… I’m just going to go home and sleep for a while…” He reached up and pulled a lever. Seconds later Apollyon shot off down the track and vanished into the darkness.

“Hey!” He had no idea where this cart was meant to go. Sebastian also had no idea how to call the cart back, so he started yanking on the lever next to the tracks until the cart came back. However it didn’t have Apollyon in it. Just a few blood streaks from when. “... Fuck it.” He jumped into the cart and yanked on the leaver. He almost fell back when the cart flew along the tracks and he ended up in the quarry. “...” He yanked the lever again and ended up next to the blacksmith’s shop. “...” He yanked it one more time and ended up at the bus stop.

From where he was sitting he could clearly see a blood trail going from the mine cart down past the bus. It was late right now so Pam wasn’t going to freak out. He quickly followed the trail and easily caught up with Apollyon who was practically crawling back to his farm.

“Apollyon… Please let me help you.” He walked over to Apollyon and helped him to his feet. He didn’t get any complaints from him as he helped Apollyon back to the farm house and onto his bed. “... Where do you keep your bandages? In the bathroom right? No, don’t move I’ll go and get it . I’ll fix this.”

He quickly searched the bathroom and found the bandages that he was looking for and raced back to help bandage him up. He didn’t have to worry about stitches since Apollyon healed extremely quickly, but he needed to feel like he was doing something to fix the damage he had done.

“... You’d don’t have to do this…” Muttered Apollyon.

“Shut up I do.” He gently squeezed Apollyon’s hand. “I… I’m so sorry I did this to you. Are you okay? You’re healing up soon right?”

Apollyon sighed a little and looked over at him. “I’m not healing as fast as I used to… I have something important I need to tell you.”

“Yes?” Sebastian was starting to fear whatever he was going to say to him. Maybe he was going to break up with him. But he would totally deserved it if it that was the case.

“Over the past few weeks I’ve been eating Solar essence to try and bring down my natural Void essence.” Confessed Apollyon. “I’ve been doing that because I want to become human. I’m trying to become human but I can’t if I have too much Void essence inside me… It hurts....”

“Then you shouldn’t do it!” Sebastian was exasperated. “You shouldn’t feel like you need to be human. You’re fine just the way you are...:”

“I thought you’d say something like that.” Apollyon closed his eyes and sighed. “I just want to be human. I’ll do anything so be human. Wouldn’t you do the same if you were in my shoes?”

“... If I was in your shoes I probably would have attacked me… Do demons really feel like that all the time?” Once again Sebastian was dreading the answer.

Apollyon laughed a little. “Sometimes. Kind of just depends what kind of demon you are. Most have extremely violent streaks followed by long periods of calm. At least that’s how it was for me. Then again I am a weird creature aren’t I?” He started to tear up. “Fuck, I just can’t do anything right can I? All I do is fuck everything up for everyone. I’m never just happy with being me am I?”

Sebastian didn’t know what to say to make Apollyon feel better at this moment. There probably wasn’t anything he could say. Everything was so fucked up right now.

“In any case-” said Apollyon. “-you need to get out of those bloody clothes. Take them off and chuck them in my laundry basket. You can take whatever fits you and if you mum asks just tell her I got like mud or something on your other clothes. I’ll wash them soon, okay?”

“... Bold of you to assume I want to go back home tonight.” Said Sebastian. “You’re not healing like you normally would. If something goes wrong and your wounds won’t close up-”

“It’s not like I’ll die.” Apollyon chuckled a little and draped his arm over his eyes. “Another reason I want to be human. How can I be with you if I can’t fucking die? Will I keep aging? Will I eventually be like a thousand years old and look like it? Will my human body eventually rot away and I’ll be back to looking like a demon? Or will I just reach peak physical condition and stop aging completely? I have no fucking clue and the more I think about it the more I just… I almost hoped you really would kill me.”

“Seriously?”

“I know it’s a horrible thing and I’m just being fucking selfish but if could choose how I go out I would have been happy with you stabbing me to death.” A weak laugh escaped him. “Fucked up right? As if getting stabbed to death by you would make up for all the horrible shit I’ve done. Fuck it wouldn’t be atonement anyway. Just justice. No god can forgive a demon.”

Sebastian hated the way Apollyon was talking. Then he remembered something Apollyon had said to him. “... So the only way you’ll feel atoned for your whole existence up until this point is if a god forgives you? It doesn’t have to be Yoba?”

“Honestly? Any god will do at this point.”

“... Then I forgive you.” Seeing the confused look on Apollyon’s face Sebastian couldn’t help but smile at him. “You said before didn’t you? You said I was your god. Only gods can forgive sins so I’ll forgive yours. Everything you’ve said or done up until this point in time I have forgiven you.”

Apollyon stared at Sebastian in disbelief. “Y-you can’t do that. You’re not even a god of anything.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Why not? I can be the god that forgives demons. Your personal god.”

His lover looked like he was about to cry again. “Yeah. I guess you could. You should still get changed out of those bloody clothes.”

“Okay.” He kissed Apollyon’s hand and went to change into clean clothes.


	61. Witch hunt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all like this chapter. Time for Morgana to get some kind of comeuppance. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

A god. A god. Sebastian had called himself his personal god. It made Apollyon feel giddy and excited to hear him say that and he didn’t know why. Sure he had some of his own thoughts about Sebastian being god-like and such, but still. Just hearing him say that. Damn he had no idea what to make of it. He had so many mixed emotions.

It was something for him to think about as his skin rapidly healed over. That and how funny it was to see Sebastian walking around in blue jeans and a green shirt. But honestly he didn’t really know what their relationship was going to be like now. Apollyon had gone and spilled his guts about wanting to be human, but what did any of this matter when Sebastian was dealing with some rather devastating mental issues at the moment?

Truth be told Apollyon had started to go numb after about the ninth or tenth time his body had given out and he died. Sebastian was scary when he was in that kind of psychotic state. Now he just seemed to be in a constant state of anxiety around him. 

With a heavy sigh Apollyon pulled himself out of his bed and shuffled to the bathroom. It was kind of cute that Sebastian had tried to bandage him up, but really it was a waste. The only reason he had first aid stuff was in case someone else got hurt on his property. He peeled some of the bandages on his face, pleased to see that he could no longer see muscles or bone.

Though it had to make him wonder about himself and his current state. Sure he could heal quickly from cuts, but he had been stabbed repeatedly. Getting stabbed was different from getting cut. He should be fine in a few days. He removed the bandages around his stomach and was very happy to see that most of his skin had healed back up. The parts that hadn’t fully healed looked like they were stapled shut but when he poked at it he wasn’t surprised to see that it was many small teeth.

That was good. Now he had something very, very important to do. He checked the time on his phone, it was early in the morning. Damn it had taken him all night to get this healed. He looked out into the lounge room and saw Sebastian, stressed and exhausted, sleeping on the couch. He really did look good in green.

He smiled a little and went outside, pulling his sword out of his tool box. He was going to do it. He was going to kill the witch. She was a complete bitch. How could she do this to Sebastian? Just how? He was going to kill her.

***

It was a lazy kind of morning for Morgana. She got up, ate, yelled at her henchman, gathered herbs, and now she was going through her books. She felt like she was very close to finding a way to actually help Apollyon. If she could find a way to filter out almost all the Void essence in him so that all was left was a hardened core, she could theoretically remove that small ball of pure rage.

Unfortunately the only thing that even came close to that was a ritual involving self-immolation. Preferably with fire. Which would result in getting that pure Void essence, but at the cost of Apollyon’s body. Something he probably would be against. Probably.

As she pondered this she heard her henchman getting into some kind of verbal confrontation with someone. Good. He was doing his damn job. However that was short lived when she heard her henchman scream and fly through her front door. He hit the back wall and got knocked out cold.

Morgana was stunned but had the good sense to wave her hand and quickly retrieve her broom from its spot on the wall. “Holy crap…”

Apollyon stepped into hut looking less than normal. Apart from looking like his body might have gone through a shredder he had this dead, emotionless look in his eyes. That didn’t build much confidence in her, especially when he was holding a sword. “Hey. I need to talk to you.”

“... Sure. What’s up?” Diplomatic path first. Then if that didn’t work she’d blast him back and fly the hell out of there.

He took a few steps towards her and pointed his sword at her. “You. You fucked with Sebastian’s head. What the fuck did you do to him?”

“Um…” Morgana thought long and hard about this. Did she happen to curse Sebastian last night or something? Unlikely but she sometimes cursed a lot of people indiscriminately. “Could you be a little more specific?”

“Don’t pull that shit with me you bitch!” Apollyon swung his sword wildly and knocked several books and jars onto the floor. “You gave him something. You gave him something and it fucked him up! You think I got all these cuts because I fell over or something? No. Whatever you fucking gave him made him lose his shit and stab me to death for hours!”

Morgana was very surprised to hear this. “Oh, so he actually took it. Huh… Thought the kid had a few more brains than that.”

“What did you give him?” Barked Apollyon. The boy seemed to be growling at her. However if she looked closely Morgana could see that the some of those stab marks on his stomach and arms seemed to have creepy little teeth that were moving slightly. Did this mean that they were little mouths? Was his body seriously covered in angry little mouths?

For the sake of her own curiosity she decided to play along for the moment. “Well, I gave him a few tiny drops of pure Void essence. I told him he should isolate himself as to not harm anyone. Don’t blame me if he went nuts and stabbed you.”

“Why the fuck would you give him something like that?” Snarled Apollyon. The angrier he got the more his weird little body mouths seemed to become more animated. This was getting interesting.

She smiled a little. “Well like most things it just happened. But you have to admit it was better that he attacked you and not someone else, right?”

“... I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” Screeched Apollyon as he lept towards her with his sword held high above his head.

Taking this as her cue to leave Morgana quickly zipped past him and out of the cave. She hovered above the old train station and hummed a little in thought about the current state of things. Firstly she really didn’t expect Sebastian to be dumb enough to get actually take the Void essence. Secondly, she really didn’t expect Apollyon to decide to kill her for it. That was just bad news for her.

Out of the corner of her eye she only just managed to see Apollyon run out of the cave and then point at her accusingly. Time to fly away again. She only just managed to get out of the sword range when Apollyon leapt at her and tried to take another swing at her. Clearly he wasn’t fucking around. Therefore neither would she.

“Just try an catch me bitch!” She snapped before taking off towards the Wizard’s tower. Morgana wasn’t stupid. She knew that Apollyon was channeling some demonic energy at the moment and if there was one person who knew magic to counteract it, it would be her cheating ex.

Within moments Morgana flew through his front door, startelling the purple haired man. He spilled his tea all over his robe and frowned at her. “Morgana? What is the meaning of this? I just-”

“Shut the fuck up and cast a demon trap you idiot!” Snapped Morgana. “Apollyon’s lost his shit again.”

The Wizard looked rather shocked but regardless he quickly placed a trap as his ex-wife instructed. It was a good thing he did too because seconds later Apollyon burst through the door in a blind rage. As soon as he saw the witch he rushed towards here but stepped into the Wizard’s trap. Once he did a wall of light quickly surrounded him and walled him in.

“... I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU FUCKING BITCH!” Screamed Apollyon as he started to punch and scratch at the wall of light. A small chorus of tiny screeches came from the many mouths all over his body as they all ripped open at once just to verbalise Apollyon’s anger.

The Wizard looked between Apollyon and Morgana for a moment before sighing heavily. “What did you do Morgana?”

“Me? He tried to kill me!” Despite her words the Wizard didn’t look convinced. “... Fine. I might have happened to inadvertently given Sebastian something that might have been a watered down version of the twelfth sacrament. Which is part of the Twelve Void Sacraments…”

The Wizard was completely flabbergasted with what she said. “W-what?” He spluttered. “You did what? What? Are you stupid?!”

“Shut the fuck up! I didn’t think the stupid dumb fuck would actually take it!”

Morgana could practically see Ras’s hairline receding with the stress. “Okay, is Sebastian still alive? Did he hurt anyone?”

“As far as I know the only one hurt was this demon fuck.” She walked over to the now trapped Apollyon and looked over his injuries. His tiny angry mouths just got more animated the closer she got. Perhaps his physical changes were more emotionally driven than just chemically so? The right emotion coupled with a large enough rush of adrenaline could make him explode into an unstoppable demon. “How strange… Is it weird for me to find such an abhorrent monster so beautiful?”

The Wizard looked at her like she was crazy. “Yes. Yes it is. You shouldn’t have harmed his lover. You should know by now some animals react rather violently when their lover is put in physical danger.”

Morgana rolled her eyes. “Oh come one Ras. For some demons a bit of physical mutilation is considered vanilla foreplay. You know, if this turned out differently and they fucked after all this, they’d be wanting more of it.”

The Wizard looked exasperated. “Morgana, normal humans with normal functioning brains don’t want to fuck their partner after mutilating them! Serial killers do that! Serial killers! You probably ended up psychologically scaring the poor lad beyond belief.

She shrugged. “Well demons are fucked up things. Apollyon might have been into it. Besides we don’t actually know if they fucked or not. Demons and people all fucked up on Void essence do some really fucked up shit.”

“... I see…” The Wizard’s eye started to twitch a little. “I see… Morgana, you are an idiot. How could you not see that this was just a bad idea? Now we have to deal with this!” He pointed at Apollyon, who still looked extremely pissed off. “Look at him! You fucked up a perfectly good demon!”

Morgana frowned. “I’d say I improved him… But I guess I see your point… So what do we do? Give Sebastian a little mind wipe and just tell him he took the thing and blacked out or something?”

The Wizard ignored her and went through his books. He was looking for something though she had no idea what. He was a very strange man and she honestly didn’t care too much for him always going through books when she thought the answer was quite obvious. Just do a little bit of mind wiping and everything would be fine. Hell, she had the dark shrine of memory in her hut to begin with.

Apollyon growled and continued to try and attack her. “Fucking die! Just fucking die you bitch! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!”

“Well aren’t you just all sunshine and rainbows today?” Snapped Morgana. She did not appreciate death threats. She snapped her fingers and struck Apollyon with bolt of lightning. Just for good measure she struck him a few more times.

“Would you stop that?” Snapped The Wizard. “You’re not making the situation any better!”

“Well at least I’m doing something!” Growled Morgana.

She went to zap Apollyon again but was quickly distracted by Sebastian walking into the tower. He looked shocked by what he saw. “Apollyon?!” He went to his lover but was hesitant to cross the barrier. “... What did you do to him?”

Morgana glared at him. “Shut up. This is all your fault. You just had to drink that stuff I gave you, kill this fucker Yoba knows how many times, and then he gets mad at me and tried to kill me! This is your fault.”

“My fault?” Sebastian looked appalled. “You’re the one that gave it to me and didn’t properly warn me.”

“Oh, because giving you something that could turn you into a demon isn’t cause for you to think that it’s extremely dangerous? Are you stupid? Why are you here anyway?”

“Because when I woke up Apollyon was gone and I had no idea where he was.” Said Sebastian. “I thought that maybe the Wizard could help me.”

The Wizard sighed as he continued to look through his books. “Can you all please stop yelling? There really is no point. Apollyon just needs to calm down and get his own emotions under control. After that then we can talk like civilized people.”

“Fuck that shit.” Snapped Morgana. “I’m out of here. And you-” she pointed at Sebastian. “-keep your fuck buddy under control or I will open up a rift to the Void and kick the fucker in.” With her threats made Morgana quickly flew out of the tower and back to her home in the mountains.

***

The Wizard was not impressed with Morgana’s flippant attitude towards facing her responsibilities. She just kept sowing the seeds of paranoia and doubt in people’s minds and claims ignorance when everything goes to shit. Now he had to deal with her mess.

“... So from what Morgana has mentioned you two have had a rather horrible night?”

Sebastian nodded a little as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah… I don’t really want to talk about it. Okay?”

The Wizard shrugged. He didn’t really care too much about wanting to help people that didn’t want his help. He was literally just going to keep Apollyon locked away till he calmed down. Then they could talk things over.

Apollyon growled a little and continued to try and bash his way out of the trap but he quickly realized that it wasn’t going to work. So he sat down and sulked. Though he personally wasn’t opening his mouth to tell the many tiny mouths yelled and screamed out in anger.

“... You know-” said the Wizard. “-if you need to talk to someone about what you experienced I suggest you talk to Elizabeth. She herself has completed the Twelve Void Sacraments.”

“...” Sebastian looked unsure at his words and looked at his boyfriend. “I’ll think about it…”

“Good.” He closed his book and looked down at the tea stain on his robe, frowning. Damn Morgana for making his spill his drink. “Look, I’m going to change my clothes. You stay down here and try to calm your boyfriend down a little.” He marched off to his bedroom and hoped that this drama would be over and done with now. He didn’t deal with this kind of Void magic crap. His magic dealt with Solar essence for crying out loud.


	62. Mum's house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Elizabeth makes a return! Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

After Apollyon had calmed down and they had talked, Sebastian decided to go and see Elizabeth. He asked if he should call ahead, but Apollyon assured him that she would know he was on his way. He didn’t like how she could do that, but whatever. He couldn’t complain much.

So Sebastian found himself outside Elizabeth’s house once again. It felt slightly eerie standing there, especially since the whole place was already decorated in Spirits Eve decorations; jack-o’-lanterns by the front door, fake tombstones leaning up against the flower beds, scarecrow in the middle of the yard, and a huge fake spider on the garage. Though to be fair it mainly felt eerie because of how normal it seemed because these decorations were so gaudy and awful looking.

Nevertheless he shook away any of the odd feelings of doubt he has and knocked on the door. Seconds later Elizabeth opened the door with a smile on her face. She was wearing some eye bleedingly awful orange and red dress. “Good to see you again Bastian dear. Come on in I just started to boil some water. You prefer coffee over tea, correct?”

“Yeah…” He walked inside and looked around. It looked just the same as the last time he was there. “Where’s Colt?”

Elizabeth chuckled a little as she walked to the kitchen. “Colt is off working today. He should be home later today if he continues down the path he is going at the moment.” Moments later she came back with coffee. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Sebastian sat down on the couch and sipped his coffee. Somehow he felt a little put off by being the only other person in the house with her. “So um… I guess you know why I am here?”

She shook her head and sat next to him. “I have a good idea but you know, the future is fluid and never set in stone.” She hummed a little and looked into her own cup. “The future flows like a river with many streams stemming off from it. The river is the strongest path we take and the streams are the many small choices that we make along the way.”

“... Huh. Okay.” Sebastian sipped his coffee and looked around. Yep, the place still had all kinds of weird occult things in every corner. “So you’ve done those Void sacraments?” 

Elizabeth smiled softly and nodded. “Yes I have. Technically if I wished to I could be part of the magic council since I have successfully done so… Are you interested in doing the sacraments?”

“What? No, I um...” He sighed a little and clutched his coffee cup a little tighter. “Morgana… She gave me some Void essence so I could see what it’s like to be a demon.”

Elizabeth looked completely horrified. “She did what? That’s just… That’s terrible. What happened? Did you hurt someone?”

Sebastian shook his head and quickly told her about what happened and how he was confused by his own emotions during and after the fact. “I just… I have no idea how I’m supposed to feel now. I mean, what am I meant to feel now after all that?”

Elizabeth just nodded along the whole time, listening very closely to what he had to say. She contemplated what to say after hearing all that. “Well… It is important to know that the person you were wasn’t you. Not really. They kind of were because you are you but you weren’t you. Do you understand?”

“... Not even a little.”

“Yes, well I guess without years of study it is hard to understand.” She put down her cup and gently touched Sebastian’s arm. “She shouldn’t have given you something like that. Taking in any amount of Void essence higher than what naturally occurs can cause irreparable damage to an individual’s psyche. Kill the soul but leave the pain, as my former instructor told me. Sebastian dear I am just thankful you didn’t suffer some kind of catatonic condition because of it.”

“Really? And why did you do it if it’s so bad?”

She gently squeezed his arm and sighed a little. “The first eleven sacraments are meant to get you into the right headspace. Without them there is no real point. Really, I have no idea what Morgana was thinking. What she did to you was just heartless.”

“I guess… How can you look Apollyon in the eye while knowing what he feels inside?”

Hearing that Elizabeth couldn’t help but laugh. “Sebastian, if I am to be completely honest with you I think you’re thinking too much about this. Not all demons are the same just as no individual is the same. For the most general things we have adopted the social attitudes and ideas of our culture. Or example we here don’t believe women should get arrested for not wearing certain clothes, correct?”

“Yeah, but I fail to see what that has to do with demons.”

“You just experienced the initial cultural feelings that is awash in demon culture.” Explained Elizabeth. “I have spoken to many different demons apart from Apollyon. Each one is just as varied and as complex as any human. Do you think that Apollyon is just filled with hate and vile disgust for all life?”

The answer was obviously no. Apollyon didn’t go all murder happy unless he really had to. Heck, even when turned completely demon last Winter he prefered to beat the hell out of people instead. The only person he killed was that angel this Summer, and that was because she wasn’t going to stop going after him to kill him and eat him.

Seeing his face Elizabeth smiled warmly at him. “You know… I’ve done some things in my life that you might think are crazy and I have some regrets but the one thing I don’t regret is Apollyon. And from what you’ve told me he thinks the world of you and absolutely adores every part of you. He willingly let you murder him for your sake.”

“My sake?”

“Well if you didn’t have, for all intensive purposes, an immortal to murder over and over again in your insane lust for blood how long do you think it would have been before you escaped the mines? He saved you from having to go through the mental anguish of harming a mortal.”

“...” She had a good point. He had been thinking some disgusting thoughts about doing unforgivable things to the people in town. Killing Apollyon once just wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He had to kill him over and over again. That whole time Apollyon put up no resistance at all and even dragged him back a few times when he tried to leave.

“Are you okay?”

Sebastian shook his head. “I really f- … Messed up. I messed up really badly.”

“It’s okay dear. You can say fuck.”

“... I fucked up really badly. I can’t get over how I was just able to do those kinds of things to him and enjoy it.”

“Demons, just like humans are full of twisted depravity.” Said Elizabeth. She sipped her tea. “However we all have this one fatal flaw that completely wrecks us. This delicate sponge right here.” She lightly poked Sebastian’s forehead. “A soft sponge wrapped in an eggshell. Take one too many knocks to that thing and connections start to get crossed and completely black out. Even worse chemicals mess this thing up and make your sponge confused and unable to function properly.”

“... You saying it’s all in my head or something?” Sebastian just wished that she wasn’t so cryptic. If she was trying to say he was thinking about it all wrong, or that the Void essence really screwed up with his brain in some way she should just come out and say it.

She just giggled at him and happily played with her hair. “Well yes and no. You see Sebastian magic is never easy to explain. It’s one part theory, one part practical, one part intuition, and all respect. Your experience might have scared you but what is important is what you learnt from it. So what did you learn?”

Sebastian shrugged. “I don’t know… Demon’s are strange? Violent? Just want to hurt things? What am I meant to get from it?”

“Well from my experience I understood that demons are not to be messed with.” Said Elizabeth. “They have extremely strong emotions, mostly negative, but they have a strong drive and find it difficult to hide their true intentions for very long. Apollyon is a kind and caring young man. I know that when he says one thing he means it, Please believe him when he says that he loves you.”

“... Well I do believe him about that. I think.” Said Sebastian. This was just so confusing to him. Apollyon wasn’t like that but he felt like that. Was that really what demons were like or was he just temporarily insane? He didn’t really know and he had no idea what to really think.

“Hold onto that thought for a moment…” Elizabeth got up and walked towards the door, counted to three, and opened it. Immediately Colt walked in looking a little worse for wear. Kind of beaten up with a smear of something green across his face and shirt. Still Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek. “Hello love. How was work?”

“Cave bugs…” He muttered. “So many cave bugs… I’m gonna go shower and get a strong drink.”

“Scotch or whisky?”

“Scotch.” He looked over into the lounge room and saw Sebastian. “... Need something?”

He shook his head. “I um, it’s fine. I think I’ll be heading home soon anyway. Gotta beat that afternoon traffic.”

Colt nodded and headed upstairs. He seemed satisfied with everything that Sebastian said. Either that or he didn’t care. Elizabeth seemed very happy that he was back home. In fact she seemed positively giddy.

“Sebastian, if you are going to leave so soon would you mind following me? I have a few small things I want to give to Apollyon and I don’t feel good about sending them through the mail.”

He nodded and reluctantly followed Elizabeth upstairs. “So um… you aren’t mad I killed him?”

“Seb, I am pissed that you killed him repeatedly. The only thing stopping me from turning you inside out with the flick of my wrist is the fact that I know it wasn’t your fault.”

“... Ah.” They walked to a room with a wooden A nailed to it. She opened it and went into Apollyon’s old bedroom. It was a simple room with white walls and a wooden floor. There was a desk off to one side with a cork board above it decorated with photos, drawings and cutouts from magazines. There wasn’t really too much in the way of personality.

“Not what you expected?” Questioned Elizabeth with a smile. “Expect a little more doom and gloom decor?”

Honestly, yes. Sebastian did expect it to be more like his room. Apollyon’s room looked hardly lived in his by comparison. But he didn’t feel like he could just say that. “Um no. It’s very him....”

“Ah, I guess so. He wasn’t used to having so much space when we first moved in here… He was in his mid teens after all.” She walked over to his bed and pulled out a small box out from under it. “I sometimes come in here and reminisce about the past. I went through some of his things and found a few of his old toys that I thought he might like back. A few small comforts from home.”

Sebastian nodded and took the box from her. He wasn’t too sure if he should open it or not. “Don’t worry. I’ll give this to him.”

“Thank you Sebastian. I know he’ll appreciate it.” She suddenly frowned. “Wait… There was something else… Wait here for a second I’ll be right back.” Elizabeth quickly walked out of the room leaving Sebastian all alone.

After a few minutes Sebastian ended up sitting on the bed with the box in his lap. He wondered what toys Apollyon played with when he was younger considering that Apollyon said he didn’t have many things growing up. Honestly he doubted that Apollyon had any really weird toys and it really wouldn’t matter too much.

He cautiously opened the box and smiled a little at what he saw. He saw a few plastic dinosaurs missing most of their paint, some robot toy with its arm stuck up on with some sticky tape and some generis superhero action figure missing both arms. Correction, both arms were in the box. Just not attached to anything. Despite some things being broken they looked well loved. He himself could hardly remember any of his own childhood toys.

“Taking more stuff to him?” Asked Colt. He was standing in the doorway looking rather tired with a glass of scotch in his hand. “How’s life treating you kid?”

Sebastian nervously chewed the inside of his cheek. Colt still rubbed him the wrong way and made him feel slightly uncomfortable. “I’m fine… Nothing to talk about.”

The older man rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because you’re just gonna come in and talk to Elizabeth about magic shit because you’re interested in it out of the blue? What did Apollyon do to you this time?”

“... Honestly he didn’t do anything to me.” Said Sebastian quietly. “I did something to him and I just… I needed to talk to someone and well… I don’t suppose you know much about Void magic and demon stuff…”

Colt rolled his eyes. “Kid, I go around and kill demons, ghosts and monsters for a living. I’d be dead if I didn’t know about Void magic. Hell, I know about Yoba magic too. I’m a versatile kind of guy.”

Sebastian frowned a little and closed the box. Yoba, Colt was putting him on edge. It was like that guy could see right through him or something and it creeped him out. “Look, it’s fine… Just leave me alone okay? Where’s Elizabeth anyway? She said she’d be back in a bit.”

“Downstairs in the kitchen.” Said Colt as he eyed Sebastian with suspicion. Sebastian just nodded and quickly tried to walk right past him but before he could, Colt reached out and grabbed his face, shoved his thumb into Sebastian’s mouth and pulled down his bottom lip. “Huh, just as I thought. You done fucked up kid.”

Sebastian pushed him away and gagged in disgust. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Your gums.” Said Colt. “They got a purple discolouration where your gums meet your lips. Sure sign you’ve been sipping on that Void essence. What have you been up to?” As soon as he said that he pulled very uncomfortable face. “... Um, if that’s a side effect from fucking a demon I don’t want to know.”

Sebastian blushed at the implications and quickly walked past him. “Mind your own business.”

“Hey, this is serious kid.” Warned Colt. “You shouldn’t be fucking around with Void essence. That shit can kill a human if they aren’t prepared for it… Your family probably wouldn’t be super happy if they found you dissecting your arm with a fork to see how it worked.”

“... I’m going now.”

He rolled his eyes and downed the rest of his scotch. “Whatever you say. Just don’t do something stupid like take anymore of that Void essence. It’s bad for your health.”

Sebastian quickly walked past him and almost walked into Elizabeth as she was climbing the stairs. She had a container full of cookies. She smiled happily at him and handed it over. “I made some cookies the other day and I was hoping you’d take some with you to share with Apollyon?”

“Um, yeah sure. Thanks.” Sebastian quickly took the box from her, said his goodbyes and made a quick escape out of the house. He wasn’t too sure if he felt better or not after speaking with Elizabeth. At least he got some cookies out of it.

***

Once Sebastian had gone Elizabeth couldn’t help but pout at her husband. “You really should be nicer to Sebastian. I know you don’t like Apollyon, but at least be nice to his lover. He could very well be your son in law one day.”

Colt shrugged and sat down on the couch. “I know dear. I just get frustrated sometimes. He seems like a good kid, but he’s with a demon. He’s dumb.”

Elizabeth sighed and sat next to him, leaning against his arm. “Honey, I know you’re not happy, but please be reasonable. Sebastian is a nice young man who is going through a lot… He has a lot to learn about demons and both he and Apollyon need to learn how to build a strong and loving relationship despite their differences… I still really think they have a chance to make this work. Don’t you?”

He sipped his drink and glanced over at her. “... Don’t make that kicked puppy face at me… You know I can’t say no to that.”

“Precisely.”

“... And people think I’m the mean one in our relationship.”

“I’m just better at hiding it in public my dear.” She kissed his cheek. “I’ll start on dinner. You just sit here and think about being nicer to Sebastian. He’s a baby when it comes to magic things. He needs kindness and understanding.” She started to walk towards the kitchen but stopped in the doorway. “And so does Apollyon.”

“Yes dear…”


	63. Contemplation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone hope you enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Today Apollyon felt… small. He didn’t really know why. He just felt small. Maybe he felt that the room he was in was too big or maybe he was just losing his mind. His attitude didn’t change too much. He just… he felt small. He was still anxious about Sebastian going to see his mum and what she was going to tell him. She always gave good advice.

Feeling fidgety he headed down into the town. It was Sunday. He usually came into town late in the afternoon on most days. So it was kind of weird for him to see the town like this. So, quiet. He walked into Pierre’s shop and looked at the produce. He was pretty sure he supplied most of the food in here.

Suddenly the door opened and George wheeled himself in and into the back room. As far as Apollyon knew the only thing back there was where Pierre’s family lived and well, a huge hall area where most of the women did aerobics every Tuesday. He ignored it but when Jodi and Kent walked into the back a few minutes later he just had to ask.

“Hey Pierre, is something going on today?”

The shopkeeper looked confused for a moment. “Huh? Oh you mean them? We have an altar of Yoba in our house from the previous owners. Caroline and I aren’t religious but we’re more than happy to let the town’s folk use it. If you want to use it go ahead.”

Apollyon was a little hesitant but he decided to see what it was all about. He walked into the back and down to the old shrine room where Jodi, Kent, and George were. The room was rather small with ten golden pillars placed around the walls, several chairs were placed in the middle and back of the room, and at the front was a golden altar with Yoba’s symbol planted firmly in the center for all to see. 

It gave Apollyon a sense of unease but he decided to sit on a chair and do whatever it was that people did when they were in a holy place. Quiet reflection maybe? Asking for forgiveness? Guidance? He didn’t know. 

He just sat quietly and stared at the Yoba symbol. It made him uncomfortable as mixed feelings quickly started to bubble up inside him. The main thing that annoyed him about all this was why people would worship Yoba? It still made no sense to him. Yoba was a shit god. And being a god why would they offer salvation to only one sentient being and not others?

Sure he knew why, demons are dirty, but that just pissed him off more. Was he really so vile in the eyes of Yoba? Any and all the Yoba fanatics seemed to think so. He was a vile and disgusting thing. Sebastian probably felt the same way about him now too. 

He’d also said that he had been tainted by him too. Apollyon couldn’t disagree with that. Being on the receiving end of a demon’s love was sure fire way to taint your soul. Would Sebastian end up that violent if they continued their ill fated love? If that was the case then he would have prefered their love remained unrequited. It would have torn him up inside but things would have been better for Sebastian. He could find someone with no baggage he could love.

Maybe he should break up with Sebastian? Every second he spent with him he was just pulling him down further and further into a dark abyss. If that happened he didn’t know what he would do, or could do. It was at that moment a frightening thought sparked in his mind. Could Sebastian actually become a demon if he stayed with him?

He had heard stories of demons who had admired humans for their depraved works and thought it was cute the way they would rip into each other. He had also heard stories of more powerful demons taking humans as their brides when they felt like it. He had no idea what qualified someone to become a demon’s bride and if that was a catch all term or if demons just had a thing for human women. The lucky ones that survived long enough would assimilate and become demons themselves. Those ones usually lost their minds in the process.

He didn’t want Sebastian to become a demon. He was scary enough when he tried that Void essence. He could only image what Sebastian would be like if he was a full demon. He would probably go completely insane from the emotional waves that came with it. He’d have to chain him down with chains infused with Yoba essence and keep him like a wild animal if that was the case… And demon’s had a strong taste for flesh, the fresher the better. He’d have to throw live chickens at him or even himself. Apollyon didn’t want to think about that. Those thoughts were too awful for him to imagine.

“You okay?” Asked Kent.

Apollyon snapped out of his thoughts and smiled up at the older man. “Oh, um yeah. I’m fine.”

Kent didn’t look too convinced, but he was hard to read. His stone cold expression was something else. “You sure about that?”

“... Yeah.”

“I get it you know?” Said Kent calmly. “You’re trying to man up and not talk about those kinds of things. Think it’ll make you weak if you do. But you should talk to someone.”

“What makes you think I’m hiding something?”

“I’ve been to war. I know that look.” He paused for a moment to think. “If you aren’t busy come and have lunch with me and the missus today. You’re friends with Sam, right?”

“... Okay.”

Kent nodded a little. “Well, come on. Let’s go.”

“Um, should I bring something? I feel like I should bring something.”

“Just yourself is fine.” He gestured for Apollyon to follow him and he reluctantly did so. He stood back a bit when Kent talked to Jodi. He was pretty sure Jodi would be a little reluctant to let him come over for lunch. He didn’t want to make the poor woman work anymore than she had to.

Thankfully she seemed happy enough to let Apollyon come over. So he found himself sitting at their kitchen table feeling kind of awkward. Kent had left to use the bathroom and had left him alone with Jodi. She was a nice enough woman, but Apollyon didn’t really know too much about her.

“Um… Can I help you peel some potatoes?” He asked.

Jodi smiled and handed Apollyon a potato peeler. They worked together quietly for a little while before she spoke up. “So how are things going on the farm?”

“Things are going good. I’m going to talk to Robin soon about getting a barn put in. Hopefully I’ll be able to afford a chicken and a goat.” He smiled a little at that thought. “If I can take good care of them really well Marnie said she might sell me a sheep. Maybe a pig. I heard truffles make good money. I also want to make truffle oil.”

“Oh that sounds lovely.” Jodi started to cut up the potatoes and put them in a pot. “Truffle oil is really nice in salads. One time when Kent and I were younger we went on this cheese and wine tour down in Merlot creek. At one of the places they served all these other kinds of dairy products. One of them was this tasty truffle butter.” She sighed a little. “Those were the days… You good with having shepards pie for lunch Apollyon?”

“Oh yeah. I like shepards pie.” Said Apollyon. “I haven’t had something like that in ages.”

“Really? What do you usually eat?”

“Baked fish or whatever Gus is cooking.” He finished peeling the potatoes and had a little look around. “So um. Is there anything else you would like me to do?”

“Oh no. I have everything under control. Shouldn’t take too long now. Go take a seat.” 

Apollyon nodded and sat down at the table and nervously tapped his fingers. He had no idea what he was doing right now. “Is um, is Sam gonna be here for lunch?”

“More than likely. Sam usually comes by when there’s food and so does Vincent.” She happily stirred the meat and vegetable on the stove. “They should be showing up soon in fact.”

As soon as she said that Vincent walked through the door and made his way to the kitchen. “Hi mum! Oh, hi mister Apollyon! Are you having lunch with us?”

“Yep.”

“Yay!”

Jodi chuckled a little. “Why don’t you go and show Apollyon how to wash his hands properly?”

“Yeah, I can do that. Come on mister!” Vincent lead Apollyon to the bathroom and showed him how to wash his hands while asking him questions about his farm. “So are you gonna be a chicken farmer? Got any other animals? You gonna plant a corn maze?”

Apollyon laughed at how enthusiastic Vincent was. “I’m just gonna be a farmer. Not specifically a chicken farmer. Unfortunately it’s a little late in the season to make a corn maze, but in a few days I can offer you a pumpkin or two if you want to make a jack-o-lantern.”

The small boys eyes shined and sparkled with excitement. “Really? That would be so cool! Sam is really good at carving pumpkins and so’s my dad! Do you want to carve them with us? Can I pick a pumpkin?”

“Sure.” Apollyon washed his hands. “When the time comes I’ll come by and get you guys to come over. I’ll also get Jas too. Think she’ll like it?”

“Yeah! She’ll love it. Hey, since you work on a farm, are you really strong?”

“Stronger than Sam.” Apollyon teased. He lifted Vincent up and happily walked out of the bathroom while the small boy squealed in delight. “If I tried I could probably bench press Sam.”

Vincent grinned up at him. “Think you’re stronger than my dad?”

“Your dad?” Gasped Apollyon in fake shock. “I don’t know Vincent… Your dad’s a really strong. Pretty sure he would snap me in half like a twig.”

“Yeah, dad’s the strongest ever.”

Kent chuckled a little as he walked down the hallway. “You boys look like you’re having fun there.”

Vincent grinned and wiggled out of Apollyon’s arms and ran over to Kent, hugging him. “Dad!”

“Hey kiddo.” He ruffled Vincent’s hair and glanced over Apollyon’s shoulder. “Sam not here yet?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Well he probably has some stuff to do.”

“I guess… But he should be here for Sunday lunch.” Kent didn’t seem happy that his son was a no show. Apollyon didn’t understand this kind of family. A kind of family where both parents liked and cared for their children. It was weird, but it was nice. He liked it and was glad Sam and Vincent could grow up in this kind of environment.

The door opened up and Sam walked in with a fall leaf settled in his hair. He looked surprised that Apollyon was there. “Hey dude. Need something?”

“Apollyon’s staying over for lunch.” Said Kent. “Now go and wash up.”

Sam compiled and about ten minutes later the group was sitting down at the table eating lunch. It was some of the best food Apollyon had eaten, then again he had always thought home cooking was the best out there. There was just something wonderful about it.

The conversation bounced around different subjects such as Vincent’s school work, gossip Jodie had heard, Sam working at Joja, and Apollyon’s farming life. It was nice and friendly for the most part, until Kent brought up the subject of the future.

“So what are your long term plans?” Asked Kent. “Your farm’s all up and running smoothly now?”

Apollyon shrugged. “I think I’m going to try and specialize in making jams and wines. I’m kind of having fun just experimenting with artisan type stuff.”

Jodi smiled a little at that. “That sounds wonderful. What about your personal life? Are there any wedding bells in your future? And if there are wedding bells have you thought about maybe children?”

Apollyon nearly choked on his pie. “Huh?!”

“Well, you and Sebastian look like such a loving couple.” Said Jodi. “And you two can always adopt children.” She seemed to be fantasizing a little about the future between Apollyon and Sebastian. “It would be really nice to grow up on a farm.”

Apollyon paled at the thought. He never really thought about having children. He didn’t think Sebastian wanted children. Hell, he didn’t even know if Sebastian would want to marry him at this point, and if he had children he’d just be causing them pain and suffering. He couldn’t bring an innocent life like that into this mess. 

Sam noticed the distress written on Apollyon’s face and quickly changed the subject to something that was a little less controversial. Morris making an ass of himself at Jojamart and blaming either him or Shane for the disaster that unfolded.

***

After lunch Apollyon retreated with Sam to his room. Apollyon felt like shit. All he could think about was Sebastian, demons, kids, demon Sebastian, and demon kids. It was horrible and made him feel sick to his stomach. He laid down on the floor and stared up at the ceiling.

Sam sat on his bed and looked down at him. “Hey, so um… you okay? Like, if something my mum said freaked you out don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about getting married or having kids… Can you get pregnant? You’re a demon so like, you don’t adhere to human biology.”

A chill ran down his spine. “I never thought of that…” Apollyon whimpered and clutched his stomach. “This body is all male so I don’t have a womb or anything but like, I know for a fact that my demon species is all hermaphrodites so I guess I could technically have one? Fuck I don’t want to get pregnant!”

“... Sorry dude. Didn’t mean to stress you out more.” Sam sighed a little and stretched. “So, is Sebastian working today? I tried to text him but he turned off his phone.”

“He went to see my mum.”

“Ah, okay.” He gasped and leaned forward. “Dude, is your mum a demon too?”

“Nope. She’s technically a witch.”

“Oh…” His excitement faded, but only for a second. “Wait, so does this mean that your dad is a demon? Like did she summon him or are there like demons all over the place?”

Apollyon chuckled a little and looked up at Sam. “My birth is a little more complicated than that… Let’s just say if my mum had sex with a demon it wasn’t my dad and it’s really none of my business who she bonks.”

“Fair enough.” Sam grabbed his guitar and started to tune it. “So um… Why is Seb seeing your mum?”

“... Sebastian killed me.” Confessed Apollyon. “He stabbed me to death repeatedly in the mines. He had taken a magic potion he shouldn’t have and went temporarily crazy… He’s just talking to my mum to try and get things sorted out in his mind.”

Sam’s jaw dropped in shock. “Seriously? He killed you? What the fuck? Are you serious?”

“Yep…” Apollyon sucked in a breath and tried desperately not to cry. “He killed me so many times and I-I know it wasn’t his fault. It was what he took that made him like that but I… What if he hates me? What if he genuinely hates me and wants me dead?” Tears were falling down his cheeks now. He hated this. “I love him Sam, I really do. I didn’t fight back once when he was cutting me up… B-but I’m scared he hates me. I don’t want him to hate me, but staying with him is hurting him. I don’t want to hurt him.”

“... I um, I don’t think I’m qualified to give relationship advice.” Said Sam quietly. “But um, if it’s any consolation I haven’t seen Sebastian this happy in a long time. He really loves you and cares about you… You said he was under the influence of some magic potion, right? Obviously it’s not his real feelings, and if they are his real feelings it’s just the small negative feelings amplified.”

Apollyon sniffled. “You really think so?”

“Yeah, I know so.” Sam played a few chords and smiled softly. “Hey, want to take your mind off that kind of stuff and give me an opinion on this song I’m writing?”

Apollyon rubbed his eyes dry and sat up. “Yeah sure. Lay some sick beats down on me sunshine.”

Sam slowly started to strum out a song. “Keep in mind I haven’t got any lyrics. I’m tossing around a few, but it’s kind of hard. Elliott’s poetry club is really working well for me.”

“I’m glad.”

Moments later the room was quickly filled with a song that was fast paced but hauntingly beautiful. It made him feel okay. He could just imagine Sam writing a song about star crossed lovers or the feelings of loneliness. After the emotional rollercoaster he had been through today it was nice. Everything was going to be okay. He could do this.


	64. Pumpkin Patch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So me being me, I usually listen to music and podcasts while I'm writing. So I actually used the plot points for this particular song for a folk tale. Link for the song below. Kudos and comment when possible. Enjoy :D
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-BJk7Q5-iA

Sebastian and Apollyon hadn’t seen each other in a few days. The most contact they even had was when Apollyon found a box of his old toys and a container of cookies at his front door. Sebastian left him a note saying his mum asked him to drop it off. After that there was nothing. Apollyon understood. Sebastian was done with him.

Since that day Apollyon hadn’t left his farm either. He just stayed on the property and did farming things. In the back of his mind he vaguely hoped that maybe, just maybe Sebastian would come by and they could talk. He didn’t want to miss him coming by.

During that time the pumpkins grew huge and he invited Vincent and Jas over to pick a pumpkin for themselves. Kent brought Vincent and Shane brought Jas. While the kids carefully looked through the pumpkin patch to find the perfect gourd the grown ups were sitting on the porch watching them.

“You sure it’s okay for the kids to be doing this?” Asked Kent. “They might smash a pumpkin by accident.”

Apollyon shrugged it off. “Nah, it’s all good. I had extra seeds left over from last year. I can afford having maybe… a dozen smashed? I’ll still be making a profit as long as they don’t destroy my entire crop.”

Shane chuckled a little and sipped on his sparkling water. “Don’t let the kids know. They will smash all the pumpkins they can.” 

Kent had to agree with that. “They’re both at that age where all they can think about is either breaking things or making things. They’ll grow out of it eventually… You ever think about having kids, Apollyon?”

“Me? Nah. Who needs kids when I have a Goblin?” Apollyon picked up Goblin who was wearing a knitted jumper that had a spooky bat pattern on it. Goblin didn’t look impressed at all. She made a grumpy sound and wiggled out of his hands. She quickly escaped to the pumpkin patch. “... My baby left me.”

The two older men laughed at his misfortune. Kent lightly nudged his side. “Come on be serious. You want to have kids someday, right?”

“... I um… Someone like me… I don’t feel right about raising a kid.” Said Apollyon quietly. Having kids was never an option in his mind. There were too many things that could go wrong in his head, more than just the average problems. What if he did went full demon and hurt them? What if a crazy cult or Yoba fanatic got their hands on them? There was too much that could go wrong.

“Come off it.” Said Shane. “If I can parent Jas you can raise a kid.”

Apollyon shrugged. “Well yeah but… I’m different. I grew up in a shitty place and I really don’t think I have the paternal instinct to look after a kid. Besides I’m not even married yet and I don’t even know if my partner would want to have a kid.”

“Hurry up and propose to Sebastian then.” Said Kent. “You two are in love, right?”

“Well yeah but… We have different goals.” Admitted Apollyon. “His big dream is to move out of town and live somewhere like Zuzu city. I can’t take that away from him and ask him to live with me forever on this farm. That would be selfish.”

Shane shrugged. “Well, have you talked to him about it recently? No point in talking like that unless you’ve talked to him recently.”

“He’s busy with work stuff.” Lied Apollyon. Though in all honesty he had no idea if that was right or not. “We have an agreement when it comes to his work. I don’t bother him till he’s done and he doesn’t get stressed about not getting his work done.”

“Fair enough.” Shane finished off his can. “How much longer do you think it’ll be till the kids are done?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Hey, they need to find the right ones.” He glanced over at Kent. “You want to take one for Sam? I think Vincent wants to carve one up with him, or you. You can take another one too if you like Shane. You can Jas can carve pumpkins and get Marnie to choose the best one.”

Shane chuckled a little. “Yeah, pumpkin guts everywhere… Oh Yoba, so many pumpkin themed things… You gonna be making a bunch of pumpkin pies and stuff?”

Apollyon shook his head. “I hate pumpkin. The only things I make out of jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin soup. Even then I only make it because Sebastian likes it… I mainly grow pumpkins to make a profit anyway. So you want some extra pumpkins or not Kent?”

“Yeah, I’ll take a few.” He looked over at the kids and called out. “You find anything yet?”

“Yeah!” Called Vincent. “We found some we like!”

Apollyon went over with a knife and cut the chosen pumpkins off the vine while the kids watched him. Somehow Jas managed to get a hold of Goblin and actually managed to keep a hold of her. However the grumpy little skin sack didn’t seem to be very pleased about this and did try to wriggle free, but Jas was stronger than her.

When the group had gotten their pumpkins Apollyon waved goodbye to them and watched them go. He was glad that the two of them were happy. It made him long for the innocence of childhood. He wished he could relive those moments one more time.

He sighed a little and walked back to his home. He had some things he could do, probably. He knew he had some things to donate to the museum, but he still had reservations about leaving the farm. Then again if he really wanted to see Sebastian he could always go and actually do it himself. He was such a coward. He packed some gems into his bag and walked down to the library.

When he arrived he placed his new findings on some empty spaces and went to leave, when he heard a stack of books fall over behind a self followed be soft cursing. Curious as to what happened, Apollyon peeked behind the shelf only to see Penny picking up some books.

“... Need a little help?”

The red head squeaked in surprise like a mouse and quickly stood up, dropping one of her books. She was completely flushed with embarrassment. “A-Apollyon. Y-you shouldn’t sneak up on people.”

Apollyon smiled a little and picked up the book she dropped. It was a book on fables. “Sorry Penny. I didn’t mean to startle you. Were you going to check out these books?”

She nodded. “Yeah… Just checking out some fantasy books. Child stuff. Young adult stuff. That sort of thing.”

“Could one argue that all fiction is fantasy?”

“I guess, but I meant the genre. Like how there’s science fiction, horror, thrillers, that kind of thing.” She nervously clutched the books to her chest. She didn’t seem to want him to see what other books she had. “So um… how is the farm?” 

“Ah, pretty good. The kids came by to get some pumpkins this morning. They were perfect for the picking.”

“Just in time for Spirit’s eve too.” Penny smiled happily at that thought. “The kids are going to be so happy to carve some jack-o-lanterns. That’s all they’re going to be talking about next time we have class.”

Apollyon laughed a little at that thought. “Yeah, I guess so. You gonna read them a story about how those keep the demons and bad spirits away?”

“That’s the plan.” She glanced over at the bookshelf. “Um, are you interested in fables?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Kind of. I didn’t hear too many growing up. Know any about angels or demons? I’m kind of into those kinds of ones.”

Penny thought for a moment before she walked away and came back with the big bumper book of fables and myths volume three. “I know there’s a really good one in here about an angel becoming human.”

“Oh really now?” Okay it wasn’t a demon but it was a start. “What’s it called?”

“Black Vow. It’s one of my favourites.” She smiled fondly at the memory. “It’s all about this angel that got lost on earth and fell in love with a young human girl. They become human for them but well… It’s a tragic love story to say the least.”

Apollyon nodded and flipped to the story. It had very vivid watercolour illustrations. “So how did the angel become human anyway?”

“It doesn’t really say, but it’s implied that they make a deal with a demon. It’s one of those stories about not making deals with the devil and the lengths one will go for love.”

Of course it was a demon. Why did transformations always have to be enforced by some all powerful bad guy? “I see… Any stories about demons becoming human? Like the angel story?”

“Um… not really. Demons and devils don’t become human forever. I mean, why would they?”

Apollyon felt his heart sink when he heard that. However he knew he shouldn’t have been surprised. Demons don’t get to be human because they want to be. Even if they were human it was only to deceive and trick some other human. “True. I guess it just wouldn’t be in their nature. I’ll see you around then I guess? I have some farming stuff I need to do.”

“Oh right. Yes. I hope you enjoy the book.”

“I think I will.” As he walked past Penny he happened to catch a glimpse of the cover. It was that trashy vampire romance novel Midnight. He could see why she was acting so embarrassed now. 

***

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Screeched Abby as the boys covered their ears.

“My room isn’t sound proof.” Snapped Sebastian. “Someone’s going to hear you.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “Oh I’m sorry. Was I not supposed to scream in shock when I found out that one of my good friends stabbed a mother fucker to death. Also the witch is apparently a real person who lives in the valley. The fuck?”

“Hey, it was news to me too.” Muttered Sebastian. He had spent most of the morning sleeping, only to wake up to a very concerned Sam and a confused Abigail. Apparently Apollyon had told Sam about what happened in the mines so now he had to fill them in on the whole story. Abby wasn’t taking it well.

She paced around the room, occasionally looking over at the boys. “But seriously? Seriously? You straight up murdered Apollyon how many times and you did what to his insides after you fillayed him open?”

Sebastian paled a little and felt sick. “I don’t want to talk about it… It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done that at all I just… I don’t want to think about it at all.”

Sam patted Sebastian’s back. “It’s okay dude. It was a mistake. He knows it was a mistake… You need to talk to him. I think he thinks you hate him.”

That shocked Sebastian, but only for a second. Of course Apollyon would be thinking that. No one would be able to love someone like him after all that. “I-I don’t hate him… Fuck, I need to do something to make it up to him.”

“Maybe talk to him?” Suggested Abby. “Give him a gift? What does he like?”

At that Sebastian drew a blank. He had a general idea of the stuff Apollyon liked, like star shards and well, food. But nothing super specific. “Fuck… Why are you giving me relationship advice? I didn’t think you liked Apollyon that much because of the whole kissing thing?”

She shrugged. “Mate, on the scale of can possibly forgive after a while to you’re going to jail, you shot past that scale and hit the illustrious spot known as the electric chair. You fucking killed him. You’re just lucky he doesn’t stay dead.”

“I know…” He muttered. “I fucked up so badly… I don’t think I can face him.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “Relationships need communication. If you two don’t start talking to each other I’ll lock you both in a room so you can talk it out… or hate fuck. Both seem to be good options.”

“Do people actually do that?” Asked Sam. “Hate fuck? It doesn’t seem you know, normal? Like, not kink shaming but it doesn’t sound good… Sounds kind of painful if you ask me.”

Abby patted Sam’s head. “Sam, you are too innocent. You have much to learn in the ways of sex and kinks and fetishes.”

“... I have had sex before you know.” Said Sam. “I’m not as innocent as you think I am.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Sam, second base with Kathy isn’t he same thing. Pretty sure she was… what did you call her again Abby?”

“Major band slut.” She crossed her arms and gave Sam a sympathetic look. “Kathy and her balloon tits bounced around from the school band to the school gridball team to whoever made her all tingly down there in the moment. I’m surprised she didn’t get knocked up at some point… or maybe she did… If she did she probably got an abortion. You’re lucky you didn’t get the clap or crabs from that girl.”

Sam shrugged. “Slut or not she was nice, and I do have a life outside of you two you know. I have gone to Zuzu city and messed around with girls before.”

“And your dick hasn’t rotted and fallen off yet?” Asked Abby in fake shock. “Congrats man.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Shut up Abby. You’re the only one out of all three of us that hasn’t had their V card punched yet.”

“Remember when I went a little wild in our senior year?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember when I went to that all girls study group thing for a weekend at Janet Mccarthy's place?”

“... Yeah?”

“Amature lesbian porn.” Said Abby calmly. “All cherries were popped. Titties were sucked. Pussy’s were licked. It was a night full of innocent exploration.”

The boys were shocked. “You serious?” Asked Sam.

“Fuck no.” Said Abby. “I punched my V card with some douchebag on the gridball team that wanted to fuck a big titty goth girl.”

Sam groaned a little in annoyance and rolled his eyes. “Damn it Abby. You can’t just say things like that. My stupid brain cannot do this… Also, if you’re a lesbian or bi wouldn’t you have come out to us by now anyway? I mean come on.” He gestured to Sebastian before lightly slapping his arm. “Look at this boy. It can fit so much gayness and emo inside him.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and shoved Sam. “Sex life aside, I can’t go up and talk to him… I really fucked up.”

“You both fucked up.” Said Sam calmly. “Like Abby said you need to talk. He loves you and just wants things to work out between you two.”

“I know… but still… It’s hard. I still don’t know how I feel about all this myself.” Confessed Sebastian. “I’m upset, angry, scared, and confused. I don’t know how I should think or feel anymore… I’m sure he hates me now.”

“You’re beating yourself up over nothing.” Assured Sam. “Just go and talk to him. Things will be fine.” In all honesty, Sebastian wished he could believe that, but he just couldn’t.

***

Apollyon sat by his grandfather’s shrine as he read the book of fables. He was pouring over the Black Vow fable. He could see how Penny liked this story, and truthfully he did to. Like she had said it was a story about an angel that turned into a human to be with the woman they loved, however it was a tragedy and well, the angel ended up dying in exchange for their lover’s life. That part he didn’t like. 

He looked at the page where it alluded to that the angel made a deal with a demon to become human. The art for the page was a little shaky, but he kind of recognized the strange shadowy demon that was illustrated. Unfortunately he knew for a fact that the thing depicted didn’t have the brains to cast magic like that.

Though it did make him wonder if he could perhaps summon a demon and make a deal with them? It wasn’t like they wouldn’t help. They loved doing that kind of stuff so they could make some crazy loophole and cause misery later down the line. But he was getting desperate now. If he was human he and Sebastian could have avoided all kinds of heartache.

He looked up at his grandfather’s shrine. “What am I going to do? I really wish you were here old man… I miss you.”

He sighed a little and closed the book. He got up using the shrine as leverage. As he did so he felt a slab or rock shift and slide back, almost making him fall face first into the shrine. Much to his surprise there was a secret compartment inside it and within the shrine was a book.

He picked it up, grunting a little with how heavy it was. It seemed to be seeping Void magic. Apollyon had an idea what it was and when he opened it up his suspicions were confirmed. This was his grandfather’s book of shadows, inked in Void essence. It was amazing. He hadn’t seen this in years.

Flipping through it he noted that most of the spells were farming related but in the later half it delved into some darker summoning magic. This was something he should give to his mum, but not right now. At the moment he could use this. Asking the Witch and the Wizard for help yielded nothing. He had to help himself. Maybe then once he was human he’d be able to face Sebastian again?


	65. Forgiveness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you all like this chapter, it's a bit long but hey you all deserve it for sticking with it for this long. Kudos and comment when you can, enjoy :D

Apollyon had been reading as much as he could from grandpa’s book of shadows. Because of that he now knew how to make things called warp totems and a rain totem. Both good, but not what he needed at the moment. The weather man had said it was raining tomorrow anyway.

However he was looking more at the demon summoning spells in the back. There were all kinds of crazy spells. Spells to summon demons to help you learn Latin, smite your enemies, speed grow plants, make people fall in love, and demons that would possess a corpse. That one was the last spell written in the book. This spell was his spell. The spell that brought him into this world.

He was hesitant to read it but he knew he had to. He had to know how he came here. Apparently this ritual required a rather normal set up. It needed blood, black candles, some special runes, an animal skull, and a dead body that’s been recently deceased. Apparently for best effects the body needed to as fresh as possible. From there it required a lot of chanting and fasting before a demon would possess the body of the deceased. 

It made him feel a little bad that his existence in this world was condensed down to two pages, but he was thankful that he could read about it. It did give him an idea that maybe he could try and summon a demon if he tweaked it just a little bit. Then maybe he could make a deal with it and get the humanity he wanted? 

That would be good, Summon a demon from the Void, maybe trade it Void essence in exchange for humanity? That would be an interesting conversation. He doubted that any demon would take him seriously. Even as a demon he wasn’t taken seriously.

Nevertheless he started to set up the summoning ritual in front of his grandfather’s shrine just in case he had to do this. He was still counting on either the Witch or the Wizard coming through for him at the last second… Also he needed to wait for the cow skull he ordered online to come in. He doubted that the ritual would be as effective as a fish skull.

By the time he had gone through the book of shadows and setting up the ritual it was Spirit’s Eve. Sebastian still hadn’t shown his face on the farm. Maybe Sebastian really wanted to break up with him now?

That thought was depressing as fuck, but he had to be at the festival tonight, right? There was no way Robin or his friends would let him miss out on this. He would be there tonight and Apollyon would talk to him. Now he just had to practice what he was going to say to him. Would he apologize? Yoba knows he would have to. He’d probably take him somewhere quiet and grovel at his feet for forgiveness, for putting him through this hell.

He didn’t have much time to get him an apology gift either. He ended up digging through his box of junk till he found a piece of amethyst. He took it inside and spent most of the day shining it with polish and an old rag. He hoped that Sebastian would accept it. 

***

Sebastian was a mess. He’d spent so much time laying on his bed and counting the smallest cracks in the ceiling he’d completely lost track of time. He was trying very hard not to think about Apollyon and what he had been up to but it was impossible not to. It was crazy to think that two years ago he didn’t even know Apollyon or give a damn about him. Now all his thoughts were centered around him. Life was strange like that.

He sighed a little and closed his eyes. Apollyon was avoiding him. Completely avoiding his house in general as far as he knew. He had made the mistake of once asking Robin if Apollyon had come by lately for any carpentry stuff he had to make up an excuse about him mentioning getting new furniture or something like that. He didn’t like lying to her like that but he had to. 

He didn’t need to tell her what he was going through right now. It was hard enough telling Sam and Abigail. And bless their souls for their advice but Sebastian didn’t know if he had it in him to talk to Apollyon just yet. It wasn’t just his guilt, he felt disgusted with himself. Everything he thought at that time he just… he couldn’t come to terms with it. It was a nightmare.

Suddenly the his door was kicked open by one of Abigail’s honking great boots. “Ho, ho, ho, merry spookfest you emo fuck!”

“... I’m not in the mood Abby.” Sebastian pulled his pillow over his face and somehow hoped that this would make him invisible and she would go away.

Instead of this happening his friend decided to lay across him. No, not just lay across him, practically bodyslam herself across his stomach and wind him. “Nope! You have been too sad these past few days. Time to cheer up and get spooky.”

However instead of getting spooky with her Sebastian was slowly dying under her weight. “Holy fuck… Is all your wight stored in your boobs?”

“And my plump badonkadonk.” She clarified. “Come on Sebby. Time to get all spooky. The Spirit’s eve festival’s gonna start soon.”

“... That’s today?” Sebastian pushed her away and sat up. He had to go to that. If he didn’t there would be talking, especially if Apollyon went and he didn’t show up. Everyone in town knew they were dating. It would look weird if Apollyon went and he didn’t show up. His mum and Maru would ask questions. But if he went and Apollyon didn’t show up it would be just as bad wouldn’t it? It was a no win situation for him.

Abby just nodded. “Yep. Now come on let’s go down already. You can talk to Apollyon properly.”

Sebastian groaned and lied back down, placing the pillow back over his face. This was too stressful. “Do I really have to? He probably fucking hates me after all the fucked up shit I did to him.”

“Just go and talk to him you dumb ass.”

“I still don’t see why you care so damn much… You still think he’s a cheating prick.”

“Well yeah, but, you know… He actually let him kill you instead of like stopping you and hurting you.”

“... What?” 

“Think about it-” she plopped down onto a chair. “-Apollyon is really strong just from working on his farm. If he wanted to he could bench press Alex no problem if he really wanted to. You really think he wouldn’t have been able to over power one skinny boy with knife? I have mad respect for him for not just knocking you out and legitimately trying to help you.” 

He hadn’t thought about that before. If Apollyon really wanted to he could have gone right ahead and restrained him, but he didn’t. Why? What could he gain from that? Literally nothing as far as he knew. Why wouldn’t he just push him away? It made no sense at all. If anything that made him feel a little more guilty than before. Apollyon could have saved himself but he chose to be completely passive so he couldn’t hurt him. He had no idea if that was noble or stupid.

Abby nudged him in the side and handed him a fairy stone. “Here. Give this to him when you talk to him. I heard him say the other day he really likes fairy stone and was sad to give it to Gunther for the museum collection.”

Sebastian took the stone from her and turned the lumpy purple stone around in his hands. “... What if he doesn’t want to talk to me?”

“Cross that bridge when you get to it.” She pulled Sebastian to his feet and started to drag him out the door. “Come on. Gus probably made lots awesome food again this year.”

Reluctantly Sebastian tucked the fairy stone into his hoodie and followed her down to the town. Everything was already in full swing with town’s people enjoying food, looking at the skeletons Marlon captured, or trying to solve the maze. For a moment he glanced around to see if he could see Apollyon. He almost felt relief when he didn’t.

However his misplaced relief was quickly squashed when Abby bumped her hip against his. “There he is. He’s going into the maze.” Sure enough his boyfriend was walking into the maze. Did he not see him? Maybe he was trying to avoid him by getting lost in the maze. That had to be it. Once again a shive from Abby shook him out of his thoughts. “Stop thinking and go get him before he gets lost you gay disaster child.”

“Shut up Abby.” Sebastian quickly follows Apollyon into the maze. He just managed to catch the back of Apollyon’s shirt as he rounded the corner past all the goofy looking zombie grabby hands. Then he banked a left again. Sebastian followed him down the linear path, yet somehow lost track of him. How the hell was that even possible?

Luckily for him or unfortunately, he happened to run into Alex who was staring at the hedge wall with intensity. He never really got along with the jock, but it wasn’t like they were on unfriendly terms. When Alex noticed him he nodded a little. “Hey.”

“Hey… Did Apollyon come by here?”

Alex nodded. “Yep. Just walked straight past me, down that way.” He gestured off to the left. “Did you really lose your boyfriend that easily? The maze isn’t that difficult.”

“... Yet no one has ever gotten to that treasure chest beyond that hedge before.”

“... Shut up.”

Sebastian shrugged and continued on his way, quickly making it to the town fountain. As luck would have it he just managed to catch a glimpse of the man as he banked a right down another path. Sebastian took a moment to catch his breath. A mix of fatigue and smokers lung punching him right in the chest. He was not made for moving fast. Not anymore.

He took it a little easy and walked the rest of the way instead of the quick jog he had started off with and walked past the giant fake spiders and up to the mock graveyard where Sam was standing, looking really confused. But her perked up when Sebastian showed up.

“Hey man. Long time no see. Didn’t think the maze was your thing.”

“It isn’t.” Said Sebastian. “I’m looking for Apollyon. I um, I need to talk to him… He came this way right? There’s like only one path.”

Sam shrugged. “Well yeah, but you know, the only way he could have gone is like, down there.” He pointed off to a little path directly in front of the tombstone on the far left. “It’s kind of a dead end but it feels like there’s something else there, you know? Anyway, want me to head on back and give you two a little privacy? Make sure other people don’t come up this way and hassle you two?”

“Yeah, that would be good. Thanks.”

Sam smiled and gently squeezed Sebastian’s shoulder. “Good luck. I’m cheering you on. Now go and get your man.”

Sebastian blushed a little and headed down to the dead end area only to be greeted by a sign with a question mark painted on it and no Apollyon. How the hell did he do that? Did he have some weird demon powers? Well of course he did but he didn’t know if he could teleport or phase through walls like that.

“... Well fuck.” He muttered. “What the fuck and I going to do now?” Sebastian looked for some kind of secret passageway through. Unfortunately when he found it, he fell through it with a yelp and almost landed on a pumpkin. “Ow… Fuck…”

“Sebastian?”

Sebastian looked up to see his boyfriend holding a huge golden pumpkin in his hands. He looked very concerned and quickly went to help him up, but Sebastian quickly brushed his hands aside. “I’m fine.”

Apollyon flinched a little. “... Okay.”

He didn't mean to make him feel bad. “No, wait Apollyon, I… shit this is hard…” Sebastian pulled the fairy stone out of his hoodie and held it out to him. “I’m sorry… I fucked up and I don’t know how to deal with it.”

Apollyon stared at him for a moment in shock before he took the stone. “Thank you… You don’t have to apologise about it. It’s all my fault. I was the one that-“

“I fucked up too!” Snapped Sebastian. “I was the one that decided to do this. It was me, and I… I care about you. I really fucked things up so just… Fuck…”

His lover quickly pulled him into a hug. “It’s okay Seb… We both fucked up really badly. No matter what you did to me I’ll forgive you… You were able to forgive me right?”

Sebastian sniffled a little and buried his face into Apollyon’s shirt. “Yeah…” He didn’t understand why he was being so emotional about this right now. Everything was just so overwhelming now. “Let’s just forgive each other and try to forget about all this stuff, right?”

“... Seb, I can’t forget about this.” He pulled back from Sebastian and sat by a tree, gesturing for Sebastian to sit next to him, which he did. That didn’t really stop his quickly rising anxiety. “I don’t think either of us can forget about what happened, and I don’t think we should… You killed me. Repeatedly. You carved the muscles off my arms and tried to carve a hashtag into my liver.”

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to hurt you like that I-”

“Please let me finish.” Apollyon reached over and squeezed Sebastian’s hand. “I’m never going to forget what happened… But that’s okay. I don’t mind. You made a mistake and I was just happy I was the one that found you. I love you… but um, if you don’t feel that way anymore I-”

“No I love you too.” Sebastian squeezed Apollyon’s hand just that little bit harder. “I would have thought that you would have wanted to you know…”

Apollyon smiled a little. “Seb, I was scared getting stabbed to death by you because it was you… I told you that I was on the lower end of the food chain in the Void, right? Demons grabbed me and took a bite out of me whenever they felt like it. Granted I had less bones and nerves back then but still… The point is on my end I feel like I was the one that drove you to murder.”

“No you didn’t I… This never should have happened.” Sebastian sighed a little and looked up at the sky. He saw a bat fly overhead. How fitting. “Do you still want to be human?”

“More than anything. If I was human we wouldn’t have to deal with this shit.” Apollyon reached into his bag and took out a piece of amethyst shined to such perfection it almost looked like glass. “Here. This is for you… You can take the golden pumpkin too if you like.”

“You keep that.” He turned the amethyst over in his hands. “... If there’s anything I can do for you? Like to help you become human?”

Apollyon’s eyes lit up when he said that. “Really? You want to help me? I thought you said I was fine the way I am?”

“W-well yeah… But just because I think you’re fine doesn’t mean you are fine. I’m not you.” He fiddled with the gemstone a little more. “I’ll do what I can. Even if it’s just supporting you and cheering you on. I love you.”

Apollyon laughed a little and leaned his head against Sebastian’s shoulder. “I love you too… We’re two very messed up individuals aren’t we? We just can’t stay away from each other no matter how messed up things get.”

“Yeah… Makes sense though, right? I mean… I apparently have more Void essence in me than most people or something… And honestly I am glad.” He turned his head and kissed Apollyon’s forehead. “The two of us together… If having too much Void essence in us makes us evil then I’ll be evil with you.”

Apollyon looked up at him and kissed him. “Thank you. I love you.”

Sebastian put the amethyst to the side and pulled Apollyon into a more passionate kiss. He didn’t know where this sudden desperation came from. Maybe it was because he missed being with close to him, or he was starved for some skin contact? He just wanted the comfort of being here with Apollyon again. Maybe he felt the same way?

Apollyon kissed him back and pulled him onto his lap. Their emotions were quickly taking over any and all sense of reason was getting tossed aside. They needed each other. They needed this. Damned be it if they were outside. They needed to be together. Now.

***

Sam sat on the edge of the fountain playing with his phone. He wondered how much longer Sebastian and Apollyon were going to be having their talk. Hopefully things were going well between them. He could just imagine them having a heartfelt talk full of crying and love confessions. Just like a sappy romance novel.

Suddenly Abigail walked over to him. “Yo, have you seen dumb and dumber?”

“They’re up ahead having a talk.”

She nodded a little. “I see… are those fake spiders still up ahead?”

“Yep. Just like last year, and the year before that and the year before that.” Said Sam calmly. He chuckled a little and showed Abigail a Spirit’s eve dog meme on his phone. “We should just let them talk things out. Hopefully things will work out for them.”

“Here’s hoping.” Abby sighed and sat next to him. “... Look, do you think what those two have is like, healthy? And yeah, I know it’s kind of weird of me asking this but come on, it hasn’t been all roses with them… It’s kind of just been shit for a while.”

“I know you’re not a farmer but you should know you need a bit of shit every now and then for roses to grow better.” Said Sam. “But yeah, I get what you’re saying. They’re just going through a rough patch… I think if we make sure we’re there to support Sebastian things will be fine.”

“I guess…” Abby sighed and nervously played with her hair. “I just… I don’t want Sebastian to get hurt.”

Sam watched her body language carefully. Abby was one of his best friends in the valley. Hell they had been friends since high school. He could tell when something was really bothering her. It had only happened a small handful of times, but he knew. She was like this once during their finals, when Sebastian got his first girlfriend, when Sebastian came out as gay, when Joja moved into town, and now with Apollyon and Sebastian having relationship issues.

He might not have been as smart as Sebastian, or as quick witted as Abby was, but Sam could read people pretty well. “You still have a crush on Sebastian don’t you?”

Abby almost fell backwards into the fountain. “What? Don’t be stupid. Sebastian’s gay. He likes dicks. I’m not some pathetic weirdo that fawns after a gay person. That’s just… I don’t have a crush on him.” 

Sam rolled his eyes and nudged her. “Come on Abby. No need to lie. I know you have some feelings for him… Is this why you’re so anal about Apollyon?”

She blushed a little and looked down at the ground. “... Look, he isn’t going to like me in that way no matter how I feel so like, I just want him to be with someone who makes him as happy as he’s made me over the years… I was so happy when Apollyon first moved here. He was such a nice and genuine person. Fuck, we both did what we could to get them together and now I feel like shit because we pushed it so much and now all this is happening…”

“Abby, we aren’t responsible for Sebastian’s happiness. We’ve done more than enough. They have to sort themselves out now.”

“I guess…” Abby took a small bag of candy out of her pocket and offered some to Sam. “Cheers to… something, something, no more interfering and friendships?”

“Cheers.”


	66. Last day of Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for something a little nice and silly. Kudos and Comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Much to Apollyon’s annoyance, the next day he had several bug bites on his chest, arms and legs. But it was worth it. Kind of. He and Sebastian had been in such a heightened and desperate emotional state last night they almost went all the way outside in a public place. Luckily for both of them they realised how bad on an idea it was when they stripped down to their underwear.

Apollyon chuckled at the memory of that, but quickly forgot his amusement when his damn back started itching. It was even worse today since it was raining. Damp weather always seemed to do this to him. Oh well today he decided to do it. He walked down to the beach and went to talk to the Old Mariner.

When he saw Apollyon approach he smiled and waved. “Hey there lad. I can see that sparkle in yer eye, lad, Ye must be head over heels in love. Ye must be after a mermaid pendant?”

“Yep. I got the money and I got a boyfriend.” He handed the money over to the Old Mariner and he handed over the pendant. 

“Good for you lad. Yer gonna propose to him soon right?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Not just yet… I want to make sure things are all good between us before I pop the question.”

“That’s using yer head lad.” Said the Mariner. He yawned a little and stretched, looking up at the stormy sky. “It’s a rough one today isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is pretty bad… Will you be at the saloon tonight?”

The Mariner looked surprised to hear that. “What’s that lad?”

“Well I only ever see you when it’s raining so I kind of just thought you might like to warm up in the saloon.”

The older man laughed a little. “You’re a kind lad, but I best be staying here. There might be other young lovers looking for their own mermaid pendant to propose with. But ye best be off now lad. Looks like lightning’s on its way.”

Apollyon frowned a little, but respected the old man’s wished and walked back home. Determined to hide it, Apollyon ducked into the chicken coop and hid it in the incubator. He didn’t plan on hatching and chickens and there was no way that Sebastian would ever come in here and find it. He felt a little bad about actually getting it, but he wanted to get it. Once he had sorted everything out he would propose to Sebastian. 

With that out of the way Apollyon slipped back into his house and peeked into his bedroom. Sebastian was still there, asleep in his bed. After their intense make out session they had escaped back to his farm to continue. Smiling, Apollyon took off his damp clothes and got back into bed with his lover.

He let his eyes wander over the exposed flesh of Sebastian’s shoulders and neck. He had bitten Sebastian’s shoulder and there was an obvious mark that was going to be visible for days. It made him chuckle a little. He almost felt like biting was more of an animal thing than a human thing.

For a moment he wondered what would happen if he did summon a demon and they were able to give him what he wanted. What would they ask for him to give up? Could he even give them anything they wanted? It made him feel a little depressed but he didn’t know if he could go through with it after all. He knew demons were very tricky and liars that loved loopholes. But looking again at Sebastian’s peaceful sleeping face he knew the answer. There was nothing he wouldn’t do. 

He’d abandon everything he had now just as long as he could be with him somehow. Without a doubt he would do anything to be the man Sebastian deserved. He deserves someone who can hold him and love him properly. Something he couldn’t do completely now. As long as he was a demon there would always be that little bit of uncertainty.

“...” He leaned over and gently kissed Sebastian’s forehead. In Apollyon’s eyes, Sebastian was practically perfect. So it kind of hurt to know he was apparently being tainted by being with him. Did that mean his fear of possibly turning Sebastian into a demon was viable? He hoped not. He didn’t know what he could do if that happened. Well he had some idea but he didn’t really like the idea of being a psychotic demon’s caretaker and food source for all eternity.

As he stressed out about that Sebastian rolled onto his side and begrudgingly woke up. “... Is it morning?”

Apollyon smiled a little at him. “Yeah, well, more like midmorning but it’s practically the same thing, right?”

“Hmm.” Sebastian pulled the covers over his head. “Sleep…”

“But it’s a rainy day.” Informed Apollyon. “Maybe we can go out and walk down to the beach today?”

“... Later. Sleep now. Don’t you have farm things to do?”

“Already done love. I just have to worry about you now.” Apollyon cautiously pulled the covers back. “You should be getting up now anyway…. I didn’t tire you out too much did I?”

“Don’t give yourself too much credit.” Muttered Sebastian. “I was tired from all the stress and emotional junk… I really needed last night.”

“Yeah, me too. Next time though, we should keep our hands off each other till we get home, or like you know, plan ahead.”

“... You’d do it outside?”

“Seb, I have done it outside. I got bitten by bugs then too.”

Sebastian blushed a little. “Right…”

“... Do you want to do it outside?”

Sebastian’s blushed deepened. “N-no!”

Apollyon couldn’t help the mischievous grin that spread across his face. “We can do it you know. I’ll get a blanket, some lube, maybe a few toys. We’ll sneak off to the secret woods in the spring and do it in front of the statue.”

“Nooooooo…” Whined Sebastian. “I don’t wanna. We’re gonna get out asses eaten by mosquitos and stuff.”

“... Babe, I do my best to try and not kink shame but weird bug fetishes are kind of a little weird for me.” 

Sebastian promptly kicked Apollyon out of the bed. “And stay out.”

Apollyon whined from his spot on the floor. “Why? You know I was just joking.” He crawled over towards Sebastian’s side of the bed and rested his chin on the mattress. “Babe. I’m sorry. Please let me back in. It’s cold.”

“Make me a coffee and I’ll think about it.” Muttered Sebastian.

“... Fine. Black with two sugars?”

“Yep.

“Be back in a moment.” Apollyon quickly pecked Sebastian on the cheek and quickly headed to the kitchen. He didn’t mind the fact that he was walking around in his underwear. It wasn’t that bad.

***

While Apollyon was off making coffee, Sebastian was trying to wake up to the sound of raindrops on the roof. Admittedly they had gone a little overboard last night but he had to admit he really needed it. And from how passionately Apollyon reciprocated his advances he had needed it too. Though next time they felt the flames of passion they needed to fan those flames while they were in the privacy of their bed.

He sighed a little and slowly pulled himself up to a sitting position. Sebastian had no idea where his pants had gotten thrown last night. For all he knew his pants were probably outside and drenched by now.

He looked off into the corner of the room and saw Goblin ripping into a sock. One of his socks. “Hey!” She paused for a moment and glared at him for a moment before continuing to turn his sock into shredded bits of wool. “... Bitch.”

“Meow!”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and had a look around the room to see if he could find any of his clothes anywhere. He saw his other sock, one shoe and his hoodie. He wished he could have at least found his underwear. When the hell did they start just throwing off their clothes anyway?

Apollyon walked back into the room and offered him some coffee. “Here you go. Can I get back in bed now?”

“Where are my pants?”

“Um… somewhere?” Apollyon looked around the room. “... I’ll go look for them.” While Apollyon gathered Sebastian’s clothes, Sebastian watched him and drank his coffee. Apollyon had a nice butt. Almost as if to prove it, Apollyon had a nice looking bite mark just peeking out from his underwear. “I think Goblin destroyed your socks…”

“Yeah, she kind of did that. Can I borrow a pair from you?”

“Sure. I’ll buy you a new pair.” Apollyon placed all of Sebastian’s clothes next to the bed. “... Can I get back in now?”

“Yeah, sure.” Sebastian shuffled over a little and Apollyon quickly slipped back in to the bed. He gently leaned his head against Sebastian’s shoulder and sighed happily. “You okay?”

“Yep.”

“Did you finish your farm chores?”

“Yep. Got up early and did all my things.” He leaned up and kissed Sebastian’s cheek. “Now I just have time to spend with you… Been thinking about getting a second house extension. Maybe think about getting a cellar and fill it was some good old aging barrels. I heard I can age wine and cheese to a perfect quality. I can sell it for a high price if I do.”

“That’ll be nice.” Sebastian finished off his coffee and put it on the bedside table. “You must be making a fair bit of money from all this farming.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty profitable. I’m making enough to pay my bills and do the things I want to do… Wifi kind of sucks here though. Think you can help me out with that?”

Sebastian smiled a little and ran his fingers through Apollyon’s hair. It was kind of damp. “I’ll go and help you out with that later this week. I still have some work to do. Winter’s tomorrow so that means it’s major crunch time for me. But I’ll come by when I have no work and I’ll help you out.”

Apollyon grinned. “Good… I um… If you like, you can start thinking about leaving a change of clothes here if you like. You sleepover enough to do so.”

Sebastian was a little surprised to hear that, but it still made him happy. “Sure. I’ll bring some stuff over next time… Hopefully Goblin won’t eat my socks again.”

“Yeah, I don’t know why she’s doing that. It’s the first time she’s gone and done that.”

“Your cat hates me.”

“She’s a cat. I don’t think she has the ability to actually hate anyone.”

Sebastian looked at her and she glared at him while she slowly pulled a chunk out of his sock. “Nope she hates me. She’s trying to assert her dominance over me.”

“Is it working?”

“Nope.”

Goblin glared at them and hissed at them.

Apollyon just laughed and shook his head. “I think she begs to differ.”

“Seriously?” He rolled his eyes. “What the hell is the hierarchy in this place anyway?”

“Goblin thinks she’s the queen and let’s face it she is. This is her house and I just feed her. After her is me and then there is you.” Apollyon poked Sebastian’s cheek. “Do you really think that she hates you? If anything she just likes messing with you. Maybe.”

“She’s a little bitch.”

“She’s a cat. Female cat’s care called queens.”

“Really? Never really thought about it...”

Apollyon shrugged and kissed his neck. “Yeah, well that doesn’t really matter too much now anyway… Are we good now?”

“Yeah, I think we’re good.” He hummed a little and lightly tugged on Apollyon’s hair. “You wanna do it again or something? Like, I don’t mind spending all day in bed, but either way I kind of wanna head home at some point.”

Apollyon smiled a little. “Nah, not really. I just wanna hold you and kiss you all day, and take you out somewhere nice. Like the pier or maybe we could go to the train station? Or like where ever you want. Your choice.”

“That sounds nice.”


	67. It didn't even matter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, You all should be used to this by now but my writing style is like a roller coaster with plenty of highs and lows. Kudos and comment when you can. I really enjoy reading any and all comments you give me. 
> 
> I like the social interaction that comes with fanfic stuff. This isn't some plea to get more comments or whatever, it's just to let you all know I love talking with you people and talking about this stuff. One of the things I love reading is people's theories and expectations for the next chapters. Once again, not a plea for comments, just letting you all know about my fav part of the fanfic community as a whole :D

With their relationship restored Apollyon felt like he was on top of the world again. They hadn’t had an argument since Spirit’s Eve and everything was just coming up roses. It made the start of winter bearable when Sebastian went into crunch time with all the last minute work he was getting. Every other day he would come over with some tasty sweet treat for Sebastian to eat.

Today he was bringing over a tasty blackberry cobbler. He had cooked a fair few and was intending to share the rest of them with Sebastian’s family. Robin was always excited when he came by with food, and so was Maru. Demetrius had suggested he start bringing over more healthy options, but screw that. He’d only change the food if Sebastian asked him.

When he opened up the door, Robin greeted him with a smile. “Hey there Apollyon. Did you come here for business or for a visit?”

“Just a visit today Robin.” He put the tray on her counter and beamed. “Blackberry cobbler. Still warm.”

She beamed. “It smells so good. Let’s go to the kitchen and get this sorted out.” The two of them walked to the kitchen and Robin got a few bowls out and served up some decent sized pieces, setting aside a corner piece for Sebastian. Robin took a bite and looked like she was in heaven. “So good.”

Apollyon chuckled a little and nervously rubbed the back of his head. “You praise me way too much. I think it would have been better with cream but I didn’t have any at home.”

“Say no more.” Robin took a can of whipped cream out of the fridge and squirted some onto her own and Apollyon’s. “There you go.”

“Thanks.” Apollyon ate some and smiled. “Yummy. So where’s Maru and Demetrius?”

“Maru’s in her room and Demetrius is off doing some surveys. He’ll be back later tonight.”

He nodded and continued to eat. “Good to hear they are both working hard… Sebastian doesn’t talk much about what anyone else is doing.”

Robin sighed a little at that. “Yeah, I’m not surprised. Sebastian and Demetrius have never really gotten along, and it was made worse when Maru was born.” Intrigued by this family gossip Apollyon leaned forward a little. “You see, the two of them tried to get along to begin with and for a while I think they enjoyed their time together but well, when I got pregnant with Maru his attention kind of turned away from Sebastian and I guess he felt neglected or like he didn’t fit in with our family anymore… With blended families like ours can be a little hard for everyone to adjust, especially little children.”

Apollyon nodded in agreement. “Yeah well, I don’t really get along too well with my step dad either… But I never really had a half sibling to contend with. I think despite it all he’s okay.”

She smiled at him. “I think so too. Do you want to take some down to Sebastian now?”

“Yeah thanks.” He took a bowl and the whipped cream down to the basement, lightly kicking the door before he entered. “Knock, knock. I come bearing cobbler and cream.”

Sebastian looked up from his computer with dead eyes. “Thanks. Close the door.”

Apollyon complied with his wishes and put the bowl next to him. “You ready to take a break?”

“Yeah.” He sat back and stretched, yawning a little. Sebastian took the bowl and started eating. “You know, you don’t have to keep bringing me food. You trying to fatten me up or something now?”

“I like making food for people. Plus I think fucking a few times a day helps burn off those extra calories.”

Sebastian stared at him and blinked slowly, much in the way a very sleepy person might if their brain wasn’t ready to be awake just yet. “So, you’re fattening me up, so we can fuck? Seriously?”

“Not really, but who knows, you might look cute with a little chub around your belly. Chubby is cute.” He imagined what Sebastian might look like with more of a dad bod look. Yeah, still extremely hot.

“Just because we’re dating doesn’t mean I wanna let myself go.” Mumbled Sebastian as he ate another bite. “Why do you have to be so good at cooking?”

Apollyon chuckled a little and kissed Sebastian’s cheek. “Okay. Next time I’ll bring you some sashimi. Maybe a few sushi rolls? Would you like that?”

“Yeah.”

A slight smirk made its way onto his lips. “Wanna eat it off me? I heard that’s a fetish somewhere.”

“...” Sebastian licked his spoon clean and whacked him in the forehead. “No. Shut up. Bad Apollyon.”

Apollyon whined and rubbed his forehead. “So mean. Why would you do that to me? Don’t you like that idea? Aren’t you adventurous? A little kinky?”

“Shush. No talking. Hush your mouth. I don’t wanna indulge your food fetishes.” Whined Sebastian. “Too messy and sticky.”

“Fine.” Apollyon looked over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Fixing some stuff for a small tech company. Nothing too major.”

“Ah.” He still didn’t really know much about computers but if Sebastian said it wasn’t anything too major then that was probably the case.

“So what’s new with you? Have you looked more into becoming human?”

Apollyon shrugged a little. “Um well… I am looking at stuff but nothing has come up yet. Hopefully it will get sorted out soon. I really want to be human by Winter Star.”

Sebastian nodded a little. “Well hopefully. If not we just have to work on it next year. Not that big a deal, right?”

Despite his need to become human, Apollyon had to agree with Sebastian. He had lived this long as a demon, he could live a few more years. “Yeah.” He kissed Sebastian’s cheek. “Well, I’m going to be heading home now. Some of my fences have rotted away and I want to fix them asap.”

His lover seemed a little disappointed, but he gave an understanding nod. “I see. I’ll text you later tonight if I’m done. If I’m done at a reasonable time do you want to go have dinner at the saloon?”

Apollyon grinned at the thought. “Sure. I’d love to. And since I turned in a huge profit from my pumpkin sale I shall pay for it.”

“You don’t have to.”

I don’t have to, but I want to.” He kissed Sebastian and licked his lips. “You taste like blackberries.”

Sebastian blushed. “No shit. Now piss off and fix your farm.”

Apollyon laughed and headed out. He made a quick detour to the kitchen to say goodbye to Robin and managed to say hi to Maru while he was there as well. After that he headed home and started work on his fences. About four posts had rotted away into lumps of nothing. Over the past few months he had been collecting lots and lots of hardwood because he had heard Robin say that it was better than stone. He wasn’t sure if be believed that, but he would give it a try.

By about the time he was done the Wizard happened to wander in from the Cindersap forest entrance to his farm. “Hello Apollyon.”

Apollyon nodded a little. “Hey there. What’s up?”

The Wizard nodded a little and looked around. “You’ve done very well over the past two years.”

“Thanks. So do you need something?”

The Wizard had a slightly grim look on his face. “Yes… It um. It has to do with your request to become human.”

He felt his heart leap into his chest. “Oh?”

“Yeah…” The Wizard sighed a little. “Look I and Morgana have been working endlessly to try and create a solution for your demon predicament and well… If I can be honest with you, we are never going to find a solution to your problem.”

Apollyon felt like someone had just ripped him open. “W-what? B-but I’ve been eating solar essence and tried to decrease my Void essence. H-how can it… But I…”

The Wizard put his hands up and gave him a sympathetic look. “I am deeply sorry, but neither of us can actually do this. The best I can do is eliminate your demon side completely but that would kill you and leave your human body an empty husk. The best Morgana can do is compress your demon side until it explodes into an unstoppable, monstrous force.”

Apollyon felt like he was going to start crying. “B-but there has to be a spell or something. You can’t just leave me like this I-I need your help. Please… You can’t just…”

The Wizard sighed a little and shook his head. “Apollyon, things would be so much simpler if you were a demon possessing a human, then it would be easier to split you two apart, and even then you would be a demon and the human would be human. Right now you’re a demon that’s living inside an empty vessel. Your body didn’t have a soul. Removing your demon self wouldn’t work.”

That revelation made Apollyon feel so empty. “I-I see… I’m hopeless. I’m not meant to be human at all huh?”

“Hey, it’s okay.” The Wizard gently patted his shoulder and smiled sympathetically. “Just because you can’t be human doesn’t mean you can’t lead a fulfilling life. You have a good farm, a nice place to live, good friends, a boyfriend. I’m sorry we couldn’t help you… Despite what Morgana and I can do we are both just human. The only thing I can think that might even be able to fulfill your request would be divine intervention.”

Apollyon nodded a little and rubbed his eyes slightly. “It’s okay… I-I’m sorry to have wasted your time… I won’t bother you about it again…” He didn’t even bother seeing the Wizard off his farm and went back inside. 

Once he was in there he collapsed face first onto his bed and quietly sobbed. He was a hopeless case. He couldn’t be helped. He was just a stupid fuck up demon that would never be able to be saved. He was always going to be a demon. That’s just what he was, a demon wearing human skin. It was gross. He was gross. He was a demon. He wished his mattress would just absorb him already and end his suffering.

“Meow?” He felt a paw lightly press against his head. “Meow? Meow? Meow?” 

Apollyon looked up at Goblin in her fancy winter outfit and smiled sadly. “Hey there Goblin…” He patted her. “At least you like me no matter what I am, as long as I feed you.”

She leaned into his hand and purred happily at his touch. He had no idea if she knew what he was saying, but at least she made him feel a little better. She was a cute grumpy girl that kept the mice and Junimo’s away. He’d give her some tasty fresh fish tonight.

“I love you Goblin.”

The cat purred some more and curled up by his side. She pressed herself up against him, trying to absorb as much of his warmth that she could. Ah, so that’s what she wanted. Warmth. It didn’t bother Apollyon much. He was happy to give Goblin as much warmth as she needed. He closed his eyes. 

After that blow to him Apollyon was emotionally exhausted. There was nothing they could do for him. The only thing he could even think about doing was actually summoning a demon and making a deal with that. Was it a stupid idea? Yes. Desperate? Double yes. But Apollyon was at the end of his rope. He wanted the uncertainty that comes with being a demon and replaced with the much more predictable uncertainty of being a human. At least humans didn’t have to deal with most of the crazy magic stuff that demons had to deal with.


	68. Book of Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for really bad choices. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Apollyon never expected life to turn out like this. He never expected to be pulled into the human world, he never expected to be given the love and affection that Elizabeth gave him, he didn’t expect to like living as a human, he never thought he would end up living on a farm, he never expected to fall in love, and he never expected to try and cast magic.

Yet here he was, sitting in front of his grandfather’s shrine, brushing the snow off of the little altar he set up in the fall with the book of shadows tucked under his arm. Today he was going to do it. He was going to try and summon a demon. Reading through the notes his grandfather had made he knew he had to be careful about this. He could summon a low level demon and fuck all would happen, or he could summon something really powerful that would completely blow up his farm and half the town. He wanted to avoid that.

He also had a good grasp of what demons were like in general. Apollyon was pretty sure he could get this done. It couldn’t be that difficult right? Set up the right stuff, splash some blood around, and say some words. He wondered if he could trade humanity with a chicken. Two chickens maybe? Apollyon had no idea if that really was going to work but damn it he would try.

Unfortunately after setting everything up he still had to wait a while because this spell he was using happened to be time sensitive. For some stupid reason. Why did his grandfather have to make a note of that in his book? He had no idea. It was dumb.

At least this meant he walk around the town a bit more. Maybe take a little bit of time to rethink his options and back out once again. It would be just like him, wouldn’t it? He was well aware that he was full of contradicting thoughts and feelings constantly swimming around concerning this matter. Human, demon, he didn’t really know too much anymore.

To clear his head he walked down to Cindersap forest and sat down on the pier. This was a big step. He needed to be careful about this. Marnie might be suspicious if he needed to suddenly buy like fifty chickens. Shane would also be pretty suspicious about it too. He loves chickens and would beat the shit out of him if something happened to any of those lovely ladies.

“Hey.”

Apollyon jumped a little but felt slightly relieved when he saw it was Sam. “Hey. What are you doing so far out here?”

He sugged. “Needed to get out of the house for a bit… And my amp may or may not have kind of exploded sort of and might have set my dad off…”

“... Yeah, don’t do that.”

“It was an accident.” Whined Sam. “It’s a super old amp I’ve had since i was in high school. I’m lucky it didn’t blow up sooner. I got is second hand from school when the music department was throwing out their old shit… Maybe if the band makes enough sales on MyTunes I can get one from a pawn shop?”

Apollyon chuckled a little. “Maybe. If I’m your secret gift giver this year I’ll get you one?”

“Really? That would be so cool!” Sam looked really excited to hear that. “Anyway, what are you up to today?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Gonna just walk around a bit, do some stuff… Hopefully become human…”

“What? Dude seriously?” Asked Sam. “That’s so cool. How?”

Apollyon held up the book of shadows. “My grandpa’s book of shadows. It’s a book of spells. Lots of farming stuff and a few things about summoning demons. So I figured I’d summon a demon and get them to help me.”

Sam looked shocked to hear that. “Seriously? You’re gonna do that? Isn’t that like, dangerous?”

“Possibly but you know, I’m like a demon and stuff. It’s more like a family reunion than anything.”

“I see… Does Sebastian know about this?”

“My desire to be human? Yes.”

Sam gave him a disapproving look. “I meant does he know you’re gonna do it today.”

“... Well I kind of just decided to do it today. Sorry.”

“You should tell him what you’re planning to do. It kind of sounds important, but you know...” He sighed a little and rubbed the back of his head. “Look, I have no idea how it works between you two but I don’t want it to get all shitty and stuff like it did before. That would just suck.”

Apollyon nodded in agreement. “Well yeah, but like how do I bring that up? What I’m trying to do is dangerous. I am summoning a demon. This isn’t kids stuff. I don’t want him to think he should be there… Like what if the demon assumes I’m trading Sebastian for my humanity? Sebastian would be dead.”

“But you’re a demon right? You could take them.”

Hearing that, Apollyon just wanted to laugh. Why would Sam think that he was a powerful demon to begin with? All the power that he had acquired through the years and the victories he had won, it had all been dumb luck. It almost made him feel sick. Almost.

Noticing that he wasn’t talking, Sam spoke up. “Hey, you okay?”

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking about stuff... “ He sighed a little and kicked some snow off the pier. “Sam, what do you think I am? Like, what kind of demon am I?”

Sam seemed confused by the question. “Um, well… I guess you’re a really powerful demon? Like, you took down an angel and like, survived getting stabbed to death over and over again… and like, Sebastian said you kind of got turned into mince meat while trying to save him, right?”

A sad smile somehow cracked its way onto his face. “I see… Truth be told I’m not powerful at all. All my amazing abilities are just standard stuff for most demons… And I was only able to kill that demon because it was already so weak. I am just… If I get attacked by another demon I’m pretty powerless against it. I don’t want to risk Sebastian wanting to be around me and another demon.” With an annoyed sigh he ran his fingers through his hair. “I can and will do everything I can to protect him, but I just…”

“Hey, I know you feel bad about this kind of stuff, but you really should go and talk to him about this.” Warned Sam. “Okay?”

Apollyon nodded a little. “Yeah, I know… Hey, if I tell him about this, could you go and like make sure he is not on mar farm at all during that time? The last thing I need is a demon popping up and dragging Sebastian into the Void…”

Sam nodded. “Sure. What would happen if a human did go into the Void?”

“... Ever seen a group of starving teens rip into a pizza? The teens would be the demons and Sebastian would be the pizza.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, the bastards would rip him apart and eat him without a second thought. Most demons would. Unless we need to eat specific things meat is meat no matter where is comes from… Most demons are cannibalistic. Fuck, even I’m technically cannibalistic.”

When he said that, Sam took a step back. “Alright then…”

“Dude, I don’t eat people and my demon species is opportunistic. My dietary habits are closer to a vulture or a sea cucumber… Only time I’d have been able to eat live prey it would be because a bunch of us worked together and swarmed something… Even then we would start eating each other if there wasn’t enough live meat to go around.” 

“Huh…”

“Yeah, I know. Us demon’s are weird.” Apollyon rubbed his hands together to try and get some kind of warmth back in them. “... Want to walk with me to Sebastian’s place? If I’m gonna talk with him about this I’d rather you be there to try and convince him to stay away till tomorrow.”

Sam nodded in agreement and the two of them headed off to Sebastian’s home. With any luck Sebastian would be level headed enough and see the wisdom in staying away from the farm for a few hours.

***

Sebastian leaned back in his chair, cracking his neck and lower back. He needed to do something to stop his back from aching so much. Maybe take up yoga or something? Then again the thought of trying to get into some kind of downward dog or lotus position made him cringe so hard inwardly he was pretty sure he pulled something. It might be better to just look up some stretching exercises? That might work.

Suddenly the basement door swung open and Sam quickly popped in with a grin on his face with Apollyon closely following behind him. “Hey Seb.” Greeted Sam. “Apollyon’s got some stuff to talk to you about.”

Apollyon pouted. “What? No small talk? No easing into this? Why don’t you just fuck me with a rusty spoon Sammy.”

“Come on man, best to rip that bandaid off fast.” Reasoned Sam. “If you don’t do it now you’ll never do it.”

Sebastian was starting to feel like they were ignoring him. “Um, excuse me? Did I need to be part of this conversation?”

Sam smiled a little and nudged Apollyon, giving him an encouraging look. Apollyon just looked a little nervous. “I um… So today I am going to try and summon a demon to like… make me human…”

To be honest Sebastian didn’t expect to be hearing that today. He had no idea what this meant. Did he have to bring something? Did he need to bring a knife? Hold a candle? He had no idea. He hadn’t been to a demon summoning before.

“Wow… Okay. So what do you need me to do?”

“Stay at home.”

“... What?” Sebastian didn’t mean to sound as hurt as he did, but he couldn’t help it. He felt hurt.

Apollyon quickly started to backpedal on what he was saying. “I um, it’s not like I don’t want you there, and it’s not because you’re human and stuff, but well, you are human and that is kind of a problem… But demons will eat humans and I don’t want to put you in danger just because of this and I just… I want to keep you safe…”

Sebastian tried to interject, but Sam quickly cut him off. “Apollyon’s right you know. I mean come on Seb, we’re both only human. Best if we leave this demon stuff to Apollyon. No point if we go and get hurt. Then Apollyon would have to worry about us rather than himself.”

“...” In all honesty, Sebastian wanted to protest and say how he could help, but he honestly didn’t know if that was true. He wanted to be useful to Apollyon. He could do something, anything really. If he was told what he needed to do. “Okay…”

Apollyon looked relieved to hear that. “Thank you Sebastian. I appreciate it… I um, I’m going to try and do it tonight. I’ll call you when it’s over or like, you can come over in the morning.”

“... Okay.” He knew he sounded disappointed and kind of upset, but he was. He wanted to be with Apollyon and help him somehow if he needed it. He could… throw salt at it. “You just be careful okay?”

Apollyon smiled a little and quickly kissed Sebastian’s cheek. “It’s alright. I’ll see you soon, okay? I love you.”

“I love you too…”

Apollyon gently squeezed his hand and left his room. Almost immediately Sebastian tried to follow him, but he was stopped by Sam. “Hold on there. You need to let him go and do this alone.”

“I know but still…” Sebastian sighed and slumped down on his couch. “Well… I didn’t expect to hear that today… Kind of hoped he’d want to go to the saloon tonight…”

“Well we can do that.” Said Sam. “We can play some pool if you like?”

“... No offence but I was kind of hoping to have a more romantic kind of date.” Muttered Sebastian. “With like you know, stuff happening afterwards…”

Sam blushed a little when he heard that confession. “Ah, okay. I can’t help you with that one… But um, hey you two can go ahead and do it tomorrow and stuff, right? Right?”

“I guess…” If Apollyon didn’t get into contact with Sebastian very soon he would have to find some way to go and see him. If they stayed in his room he could pretend he needed to use the bathroom and run out and find him.

***

With everything set in place Apollyon started reading the proper procedure over and over again. He wanted to get it right. He couldn’t mess this up. Once the sun started to set the time was right. Apollyon lit the candles and splashed his blood around while he started chanting the words from the book. Just in case something went really wrong he had stuffed a few Solar essences into his pants pocket to shove down the demon’s throat if he needed to.

He tried his best to make sure that he was getting his words right, and thankfully there was some weird blue smoke and strange glowly things were coming out of the symbols on the ground. So that was good.

After about two minutes of doing this there was a huge, thunderous crackle as the fabric between space and time was torn asunder. In its wake a reddish vortex appeared on the ground. A groaning chorus of agony and despair emanated from the vortex as a twisted dark shape started to barrel towards him.

In a magnificent display of power and beauty a demon shot out of the vortex and landed with grace. This creature had many feminine attributes, mainly in its wide hips and red painted claws. Though it had strong, defined, sculpted muscle. Much like the old marble statues of pantheon gods. It however did have an extra pair of arms, a few extra teeth, and a few other things that made it a lot less approachable. 

It looked at him and tilted its head in confusion. It kind of seemed as though it could recognise that Apollyon was a demon, but at the same time it couldn’t. They looked at him like a scientist studying a new weird microbe under a microscope. They didn’t know what to make of him.

Apollyon nervously chewed the inside of his cheek. This demon was powerful, he could feel it. This was the kind of demon that would usually pick him up, take a bite out of him and then throw him over his shoulder like he was nothing. Being in this things presence would make most humans wet themselves, but he needed to stand his ground.

He looked up at the demon and tried to smile calmly at them. Apollyon hoped that he could make it feel like he was confident in what he was saying and doing. “I want to make a deal. Let’s talk.”


	69. Demon's don't make deals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is why you don't summon demons. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The demon stood over him, tilting its head from side to side as it looked down at Apollyon’s human frame. It looked confused and kind of unhappy to see him. Hopefully they were just annoyed about being drawn from the Void, and like not mad that he exists in general. That would suck.

“... So like I said, I want to make a deal with you.”

A sound emanate deep from within demon’s skull. It sounded almost melodic, but using notes that one wouldn’t generally use. The sound was haunting. It wasn’t a language that a human could speak, but concentrating hard enough one could interpret those sounds as tangible words. Human vocal cords would never be able to properly hit the notes. So it was a good thing that Apollyon was a demon and understood it as easily as English.

“You… you are not human.” Said the demon in a curious tone. “What are you? Where are you from strange one? The fruit of a mother’s sexual encounter with one of our own perhaps?”

“Ah, nothing like that. It’s a little more complicated.” Admitted Apollyon. “A-anyway. I wish to speak to you about a deal. Please.”

The demon crouched down, keeping its head level with Apollyon’s. “Now what deal would a strange creature like you wish for from me?”

“Um… Firstky before I ask you of anything, may I please ask what it is you do?” Asked Apollyon. He knew if he just straight up asked for what he want this demon would fuck around with him for a bit before doing something horrible. Like setting him on fire. Also, he needed to be polite and respectful or he could also be set on fire.

The demon made an amused sound, and if it could smile it probably would. “Strange one, I can turn every bone in your body to dust. I could turn everything within a hundred miles into a scorched mess. I can cause disease and pestilence to your enemies. I can possess people and make them do all manner of horrible things to themselves and others. I can drain humans and animals of their very life essence and bestow it to you. In that way I can make you live forever. What you desire I can do.”

That sounded good enough for Apollyon at the moment. “I see… Well, since I am kind of part demon I would like you to remove my demon part completely. I kind of want to be human.”

The demon looked a little confused to hear that. “How interesting… To think anyone would want to lower themselves like that… Well, I guess that would be okay. I do want something in return though. I do not grant others wishes for nothing.”

“I know… If you like you can keep whatever Void essence you can take from me. Is that reasonable to you?” He hoped that would be good enough to appease the demon.

The demon contemplated this for a moment before shaking their head. “No. I want something more… Bring me the bloodied skulls of no more than five humans.”

Now the demon was just fucking with him. Time to haggle. “Five humans? That sounds a little excessive for one little bit of humanity… One human skull should be more than enough.”

The demon make a very amused sound. They obviously liked the way Apollyon was dealing with them at this point. They probably didn’t have many experiences with humans like this, even if he himself only had human skin. “You really are strange… Have you had dealings with demon’s before?”

“Maybe… Anyway, what do you need even a single skull for?” He crossed his arms and grinned at them. “Come on, cut the crap we both know this isn’t what you really want. You could tell me to fuck a goat or get fucked by a goat and we both know its just going to be for your own amusement. So what do you say? Let’s cut the theatrical crap. I’ll give you all the Void essence inside me.”

His sudden cocky attitude must have annoyed the demon somewhat as they decided to reach out and swipe at Apollyon, cutting his face and coating their talons in blood. The demon's skull cracked open to reveal rows of sharp teeth and dozens of wormy tendril tongues. They dipped their fingers into their gaping maw and made such a delighted sound.

“How interesting… To think something as lowly as food would ask the butcher for a favour.” Their tone suddenly turned dark. “A tasty little morsel that’s marinated in human flesh for years. Why would I make a deal like that with you when I can take you back to our homeland to feast upon your perfectly seasoned meat forever?”

It was at that moment Apollyon knew he fucked up.

***

Sebastian was quickly getting antsy again. He couldn’t stop fidgeting and tapping one of his mini figures on the table. He and Sam had decided to try and work out a new campaign. That usually distracted Sebastian for a few hours at least. But not today. He was anxious and worried about everything that was happening on the farm.

“What do you think Seb?”

Sebastian looked up and quirked an eyebrow. “Hmm?”

“I asked if you think we should curb the difficulty a little. Like, I think the chimera coming in so early and right after getting attacked by three occultists is a little much. Right?”

“Hmm? I guess.”

Sam frowned a little and shook his head. “Seb, you really aren’t into this are you?”

“Apollyon is off doing something dangerous and I just… I feel bad about not being there, you know? I feel like he might do something and it’ll somehow get all messed up and I just… I don’t even know anymore. I’m stressed.”

“Hey, I know you’re stressed, but try and focus on the good stuff that’ll come out this. What’s gonna happen when Apollyon’s human?”

Sebastian sighed a little and started to fiddle with his D10. “Crazy magic stuff will stop happening…”

“Yeah, that’s good.” Sam nodded a little, trying to encourage him a little more. “What else?”

“... We can go on dates and stuff I guess.” Said Sebastian. “We can get married, maybe. If he wants… and we can grow older together and like do all that normal stuff…” He smiled a little at that thought. “Heh, if he wants kids we can think of adopting. Can you imagine me as a dad?”

Sam grinned. “Those are awesome things to think about. You’d have to end up moving in with him on the farm.”

“Ha, yeah.”

“But what about Zuzu?”

“Hmm? What about it?”

“Hasn’t it been your dream to move to Zuzu city and just get the heck out of town for good?” Asked Sam. “You okay with not doing that anymore?”

Sebastian frowned a little as he thought this over. True he did want to move to Zuzu city at some point but really, what was more important? Apollyon or his own ambitions? “... It’s okay. I make a good amount of money just from freelancing and Apollyon does make a fuckton on his farm. So it’s not like we’ll go broke… I can still go to the city when I want. Apollyon’s not the kind of guy that’ll try and keep me tied down.”

“Yeah, well that’s good.” Sam grinned and started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“I just imagined you with a baby strapped to your chest. Dude, if you get a baby I am going to get you like a frog once piece pyjamas for them.” 

Sebastian rolled his eyes, though he did kind of like the idea of having a baby wearing something like that. It would be cute. “Yeah well, we aren’t even married yet. Fuck we haven’t even talked about getting married. He probably might not want to do that. Like, why would he?”

“Because you’re both going to be human and you two, for better or worse, seem to be tied together?” Suggested Sam.

Sebastian frowned a little. “I guess…” He groaned a little and stood up. “Well, I’m gonna go and pee. Back in a bit.”

“Bring back a some food.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and went to the bathroom. He did his business, washed his hands and was about to head to the bathroom when his phone went off in his pocket. Apollyon was calling him. He must have finished up what he was doing. 

Without hesitating he answered his phone. “Hey. So how-”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! FUCK! FUCK! SHITING FUCK!”

Sebastian held his phone away from his ear as Apollyon’s screams echoed out of it while a disturbing melodic sound reverberated in the background. Did Apollyon butt dial him? This was not good. At all. Something went wrong.

“Apollyon? Are you okay?” Obviously the answer was no, he was not okay. Without hesitating Sebastian quickly ran out of his house and down to the farm. He had no idea what he could do, but he had to do something to help him. Maybe throw a brick or something at whatever weird thing Apollyon had summoned.

The closer he got to the farm the louder the strange melody became until he managed to see the source of it; a huge flying demon. Apollyon was kicking it in the face as it clawed at him and tried to drag him towards a swirling vortex.

“APOLLYON!” Sebastian ran over to him and tried to pull him away from the demon.

Both the demon and Apollyon looked surprised to see that Sebastian was there. “What the heck are you doing here?” Asked Apollyon. The demon made a strange sound and Apollyon kicked them in the face. “Shut the fuck up you!”

The demon seemed to dislike that and yanked hard on Apollyon, pulling him back towards the vortex. Sebastian dug his heels into the ground as he himself tightened his grip on Apollyon’s wrists. “Shit, shit, shit, fuck!” The cold was making it hard to grip his hand properly and he was quickly losing his grip. “Fuck!”

The demon was now fully back inside the vortex and slowly pulling Apollyon in with them. The vortex was slowly starting to close in on itself. Apollyon was starting to panic. “Fuck! No! No! No! I don’t want to go back! I don’t!”

“Shit, my hand’s slipping! I-I can’t hold on much longer!” Sebastian was panicking, he didn’t want to let Apollyon go. What would happen if he did? This demon was pulling him into the Void. It was game over forever if he was gone. He didn’t know how to open up any portals into other worlds. He couldn’t do this, and what about the last few times this stuff happened? He couldn’t stop Apollyon from getting himself killed and he couldn’t do much of anything when it came to that angel. He had to help him now.

In a split second Apollyon seemed to go through a range of emotions; panic, anger, sadness, regret,and finally reluctant acceptance. “It’s not your fault… Goodbye.” He let go of Sebastian’s hand and got pulled through the vortex. Well, almost all of him. The vortex closed around his wrist and severed his right hand from his body.

Sebastian sat there in the snow in complete shock. Apollyon summoned a demon and it pulled him back into the Void. What was he meant to do now? His lover’s hand was still there twitching on the ground and leaking blood. He grabbed his phone and called Sam. “Sam, come to Hellfire Farm right now. It’s urgent.”

“You went to the farm? What the hell? Apollyon said not to go there.”

“Shut up. Apollyon’s gone! I-I don’t know what to do.”

“What? Hand tight for a second. I’ll be over in a moment. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Sebastian hung up and sunk down to his knees, Apollyon’s hand still twitching slightly in front of him. What was he meant to do now?


	70. To the Tower

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you all enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can :D

The next few minutes felt like a dream to Sebastian. Sam came running on to the farm and he thinks he might have told him what happened. He wasn’t too sure. Sam probably looked worried but he didn’t know for sure, He probably was. Then they were walking, maybe. Well they had to get to the Wizard’s tower at some point. He didn’t really understand what was happening, even when the Wizard was talking directly at him.

The Wizard snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Hello? Anyone home?”

“Huh?”

Sam sighed a little. “He’s been like that for a while… Look, I don’t really know what’s going on. He was just kind of freaking out. Also, severed hand. What the fuck are we meant to do with that?”

The Wizard sighed and shook his head. “Right… Well this is a whole fine mess. At least you two remembered to bring the book of shadows too.” He took the book out of Sam’s hands and started to look through it. “... I see… Interesting… Huh, I might use that one…” He snapped the book shut and picked up the severed hand, looking at the cut mark around the wrist. “Yes… Clean cut but there is a bit or residue from a typical Void portal.”

Sam tilted his head in confusion. “Huh?”

“Or vortex.” Clarified the Wizard. “Or rift. Whatever you feel is best.” He took a book off his shelf and handed it to Sebastian. “Have a look through here and see if you can find the demon that dragged Apollyon away.” He looked at the hand again and frowned. “I need to make something…”

Sebastian blinked slowly and flipped through the pages. He was still in a state of shock over what had just happened. He hated how he just seemed to do that. No matter the situation if he got upset or scared he would just emotionally shut down. He had no idea why. It wasn’t useful or helpful to anyone or anything. There had to be something he could have done to save Apollyon but for the life of him he had no idea what that was.

He felt so completely useless. He should have insisted in being with him or telling the Wizard. He shouldn’t have assumed that Apollyon knew what he was doing, but he did. Apollyon was the one that knew all about demon stuff right? He should have known what to expect. Right?

Suddenly the crude drawing of a demon caught his eye. He pointed to it. “That one…”

Sam looked over his shoulder and attempted to read what it said. “... What language is this?”

“High infernal, or old infernal.” Said the Wizard. “Whatever you want to call it.” He dropped Apollyon’s hand into the cauldron and walked over to see what Sebastian had pointed out. “Oh, a Flesh Sucker. They are the apex predators of swamps and marshlands within the Void. A very powerful demon.”

Sebastian fidgeting nervously. “Do you think Apollyon is going to be okay?” The look on the Wizard’s face practically screamed that Apollyon was pretty much dead. It made Sebastian’s stomach turn.

Sam still looked a little confused. “So um, what is this thing anyway? Besides you know, a flying thing that eats flesh?”

“It’s a big flying thing that kills creatures by biting off their heads, mashing it up and then sucking out your insides leaving a sack of bones and skin.” Said the Wizard. “It’s not pretty.”

The image of that in his mind, Sebastian dropped the book. Apollyon was literally in hell. There was no way he could do anything to help him now, could he? He was just some stupid, pathetic human. What could he do? Apollyon was probably dead by now, only to come back alive and die again. He felt sick.

Suddenly the cauldron started to boil and the Wizard went over to fish out the hand. It now looked mummified and only held together by the thinnest piece of stretched leather. He them proceeded to hammer the hand into a piece of wood covered in symbols before shoving it into a birdcage. 

Sam picked up the book and looked over at the Wizard. “What’s that?”

“Magic compass.” Said the Wizard. “Granted it only points towards Apollyon and doesn’t really work right now because he’s in the Void and not on the same plane of existence as us, but you know… It’ll work when I get there.”

“You can get to the Void?” Asked Sam in shock.

The Wizard nodded. “Yes. it’s relatively simple… Though not really recommended because well, you know, demons and death and all that.”

Once again Sam looked surprised. “You’re going to get him?”

“Well yes. I doubt he would have gone too far and any demon that wandered through probably lived close by anyway.”

Sebastian nodded slowly. Apollyon was stuck in the Void and they were going to get him out. They had to. Sebastian wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if they didn’t at least try and save him.

***

Apollyon and the demon tumbled through the vortex at a breakneck speed. It sunk its claws into him and yanked him close to their jaws. He tried to leaver himself away from the things mouth with his bloody stump of a right arm while he dug around in his pockets for the Solar essence he brought along with him. He grabbed a handful and shoved it into the creature’s gaping maw.

The demon shrieked and pushed Apollyon away and he fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. Bones had definitely been broken and organs had ruptured. Still, running on adrenaline, Apollyon slowly dragged himself through the dirt towards what he felt would be a safe place. He ended up crawling into a small cave and clutched his bloody stump. He felt sick, like he was going to literally puke his guts out. 

As he slowly calmed down he closed his eyes and let those familiar sounds of the Void wash over him. Everything was rushing back to him and that sense of calm he was slowly getting back was suddenly gone. Replaced with fear and rage.

He was back here. He was back in the Void. He didn’t want to be here. He was stuck here and there was no way he could get back. Apollyon thought about all the people he had left behind; his mum, his friends, Sebastian.

“Sebastian… Oh Yoba, Sebastian…” Just thinking about him filled Apollyon with sorrow. He was never going to see him again, touch his skin, or hear his voice again. Everything they could have been together was never going to be. He was thinking about proposing to him. He wanted to do all the human things he could with Sebastian.

But that didn’t matter now did it? He was never going to see him again. The last thing he would be able to remember about Sebastian was his terrified look on his face as he got sucked into the Void. He felt like he was going to drown in sorrow. He wanted to be human. He wanted to be human for him. He wanted to be human for Sebastian so they could be together as long as their mortal lives would allow. What did that matter now? 

As he dwelled on this something slimy crawled across his leg. Apollyon grabbed the closest thing, which was a rock, and hit it. Turns out it was some weird slimy slug thing. The thing that he used to be before taking on a human form. Something that was just brimming with Void essence.

Void essence. He was a demon right? He needed to be full of this stuff. Fuck all that Solar essence that was poisoning him. He needed this. He was a demon. Not a human. He needed to replenish his Void essence and completely reject the Solar essence within him that he accumulated over the past few seasons. He needed to get back to what he truly was, a demon. He lifted the slug to his lips and took a bite.

The creature made an annoyed sound and Apollyon tossed it away. He immediately felt better just from tasting it. It tastes like that medicine those occultists gave him that one time. They probably just gave him watered down Void essence to begin with. He looked down at his severed hand, pleased to see that the bloody stump was already growing bone back. If he ate more Void essence he could heal faster, right?

He slowly got up and wandered further into the cave. He could find more small creatures like that to eat and get his internal Void essence balance back to what it was meant to be. He needed to get back to what he really was. He couldn’t pretend anymore. Everyone was right about him. He was a demon. Full of hate and suffering.

He found a few small insects scutting around the cave and quickly ate them. They exploded in his mouth like gushers. It wasn’t as good as the slug creatures but it was till Void essence. That was kind of gross, but it tasted familiar and almost comforting. Just the realization that this was making him feel comforted was a depressing feeling.

Apollyon grabbed a particularly large bug, watching its many legs jitter and squirm in the air. Curious as to if this would work, Apollyon crushed it and lets its juices cover his stump. From the stump a claw like protrusion started to grow from it. He also noticed his skin was slowly starting to blister and peel. 

He tugged at it and was a little surprised to see that peeled away like tissue paper. He knew he should have felt disturbed by this, but he couldn’t. He just accepted it now. This was what he was after all. A monster. A freak. A demon.

He didn’t have much or a reason to be human anymore. He knew he was quickly starting to fall away from his humanity. But that was fine. He was good at changing and adapting, that’s what demons did. The changed and adapted continuously to their surroundings. If they didn’t they would die. That’s just how it was. That’s all he had been doing before right? He was trying to be human to perfectly adapt to his surroundings. That’s all.

Apollyon rubbed some of the skin on his lips, unsurprised to see it come off in sheets. Human skin wasn’t meant to touch something so toxic. In a matter of hours he knew it would all peel away and he would hardly resemble the human he used to be.

Suddenly he heard a loud thump coming from the entrance of the cave. “You in there?” Snarled the demon. “That was a very nasty trick you pulled on me. Making me eat something so vial. If you come out now I’ll make this first feeding quick. Everything else after well… it depends on how much you piss me off.”

A fresh wave of hatred washed over Apollyon. This demon dragged him here. This demon took everything from him. This demon didn’t deserve to keep living. They took everything from him. He growled a little and walked towards the front, quickly picking up speed until they broke into a full sprint. He was going to kill it. He was going to rip it to pieces.

He lept at it but was immediately impaled on its talons. The demon made a plased sound as Apollyon choked on his own blood. “Such a good little thing you are. Coming when called. I like that.” Its mouth cracked open again and several tongues lashed out, wrapping around Apollyon’s head and drawing him in. 

Apollyon struggled to pull himself away from its drooling maw. Taking a chance he stabbed the side of his mouth with the boney claw from his stump arm and dug it in as deep as he could.. He was going to sever the soft flesh away from its skull, scoop it out and eat it.

The demon screeched in pain and tried to pull him away, ripping into the soft flesh of his stomach. He didn’t care. Getting sliced like this was nothing. Its talons cut through him too easily. It would have hurt more if it actually caught on something. Fuck, Sebastian hurt way more than this stupid fucker did.

“Fucking die already!” Growled Apollyon. “You took everything away from me!” With a few quick twists of his wrist he managed to scoop out a large chunk and started on the other side.

The demon cried out and shoved their talons through Apollyon’s skull. It was at that point Apollyon stabbed something vital and the demon’s body went limp. Ignoring the cranial impalement Apollyon continued to rip into them and started to scoop out and munch on the soft, juicy bits of the demon’s skull.

He didn’t have to worry about this thing coming back to life suddenly. Sure demons could heal faster than normal people, but he knew for a fact, that since his species of demon was constantly getting eaten he could heal extremely rapidly. This demon, a thing that was an apex predator could not heal as fast as he could. It was dead now. Fucking dead. But he was still pissed off.

He grabbed hold of the demon’s hand and twisted off its talons. He didn’t care that the bastard’s talons were protruding out of his head. He was angry and wanted to hurt more things. He was just a ball of rage. He looked up at some of the gnarly looking dead trees overhead, seeing more of the same demon observing him. They seemed shocked to see him kill of of their own and were cautiously avoiding him.

“WANT SOME FUCKERS?!” He screamed at them. “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU TOO! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL! COME AT ME! DO IT! FUCKING DO IT! I HAVE FUCK ALL TO LOSE NOW! I HAVE NOTHING!”

Wisely the curious demons quickly left him alone. Apollyon growled at them and dragged the demon’s corpse back into the cave. He was going to devour this flesh and any other flesh that came his way. He would take it all and absorb as much Void essence as he could.

He hated this world and everything in it. He was going to kill everything that came his way. They would rue day he was forced back in here. If he couldn’t be human then he was going to be a demon. The best demon he could possibly be, and he would kill them. He would kill them all.

***

“What do you mean I can’t go with you?” Asked Sebastian in shock.

The Wizard rolled his eyes. “Because you are not a magic user. It would be irresponsible for me to get you to come with me. Samson doesn’t want to come with me.”

“Yeah, well that’s different!” Snapped Sebastian. “His boyfriend isn’t lost in the fucking hell dimension! He didn’t fucking let go at the last fucking second!”

“You can’t go with me and that’s final.” Said the Wizard sternly. “It’s been like what? An hour? Do you have any idea how time works? Time is all weird in there. Could have been an hour, could have been a few decades. Apollyon could be anywhere by now and well, you can’t defend yourself.”

“I am going with you! You can’t stop me!”

Sam pulled Sebastian aside for a moment. “Dude, calm down for a second and think for a bit. Do you really think this is a good idea? The Wizard knows more about this than you. Isn’t it better you stay here?”

Sebastian gritted his teeth, extremely frustrated with everything. “Fine. I’ll ask the Witch for help. Yoba knows she’ll help me since no one here will!” He went to leave but the Wizard stopped him.

“Fine!” He snapped. He went over to his shelf and took some rings out of a box. “Here, wear these. Two rings of Yoba. Double the protection. Don’t blame me if you get killed. Stupid bastard…”

“I’m not stupid!” Snapped Sebastian. “I just… I want to save him… I need to… to help him… He didn’t deserve that.” He felt like he was going to start crying. “He hates that place. He doesn’t want to be there… I have to help him, okay?”

The Wizard was still obviously frustrated by all this but reluctantly accepted this answer. “I see… Well there’s still a few things I need to do before we can get going… Just… Try to calm down and make sure this is what you want. Okay?”

Sebastian nodded and watched the Wizard work. He was moving all kinds of things around and drawing symbols on the floor. Sebastian hoped that this would work and they could actually save Apollyon. He couldn’t let him go. Not like this. Not like this at all.

Sam nudged Sebastian. “Hey… Are you sure this is all okay? Like, what the fuck man. I really have no idea what’s going on. This is too weird for me.”

“Yeah, well it’s weird for me too.” He nervously chewed on his bottom lip. “I can’t just leave Apollyon there… I can’t… He’s gone and saved my life so many times already I have to at least do this for him.”

“I know.” Sam leaned against the wall and watched the Wizard work. He still didn’t look too sure about any of this, but he seemed to reluctantly go along with this thing. Honestly Sebastian wasn’t too sure about this either, but it was for Apollyon. The man that said he would happily follow him no matter where he went. Even the Yoba plane or the Void he would follow him. Sebastian would do the same.


	71. Into the Void

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, hope you all enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can, enjoy :D

Despite the Wizard saying he could go with him to the Void, the Wizard stopped his spell to try and convince Sebastian to stay put. “This is not something you want to do Sebastian. Think about it, you’ve seen Apollyon in his more demonic form. Now imagine a million more of those things running around trying to eat you just because they can.”

“I am going to go with you no matter what!” Snapped Sebastian. He put on the Yoba rings, surprised to feel them tingle against his skin. It just felt so weird to him. Still he was determined. “You can’t stop me.” That was a lie but he was stubborn. 

Suddenly the front door swung open at Morgana flew in. She scared the heck out of Sam, but she took no notice of him nor Sebastian. “Ras! Someone went and opened a fucking vortex to the Void on Hellfire farm and… Is that a hand with a nail in it in a bird cage?”

“... Yes.” The Wizard picked up the cage and held it away from her. “You see, Apollyon went and got himself sucked into the Void. I am going to see if I can retrieve him.”

The witch seemed intrigued by this. “Oh? Really? How did that happen?”

“According to Sebastian he was trying to summon a demon to make him human.”

Hearing that the witch burst out laughing. “No seriously, why did he open a vortex to the Void? … Wait… You’re serious? Did someone shove a railroad spike through that pea brain of his?” She whipped around and saw Sam standing by the door with his mouth agape. “What? Never seen a witch before Samson? Close your mouth and don’t be so fucking rude.”

Sam still looked shocked but did as she said. He gave Sebastian a worried look, but otherwise did nothing. Sebastian walked over to him and they watched the magic users bickering away with each other about this that and all kinds of things.

Sam spoke in a hushed tone. “So um… That’s the witch huh?”

Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, she and the Wizard apparently used to be married or something. I don’t know the details. But like, the Wizard is all into Yoba magic and the Witch is into Void magic… You know if the Wizard doesn’t take me I’ll ask the Witch. Knowing her she’d spartan kick me into the Void for fun.”

“I see…” Sam watched as the magic duo fought over the hand in the birdcage “So, do you really want to do this? Go into the Void and what not? It sounds really, really dangerous and like… Look, I know this sounds horrible and everything but like, Apollyon is a demon. He should be okay. Right?”

Sebastian knew that Sam had a point, but Apollyon wasn’t like a demon. Not anymore. He was more human than demon. “Sam, that’s like throwing a chihuahua into a frozen tundra and thinking it will be fine because and wolves are both canines. Wouldn’t fucking work. Besides, wouldn’t you go into the Void if Vincent was somehow thrown in there?”

“... Okay, fair point. But you shouldn’t be the one going in there. You’re just human. You can’t cast magic.”

“I know… But I am still going to go. I have to save him…” He looked down at the Yoba rings on his hand. “I just have to.” 

Sam places his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “Seb…”

Suddenly the Witch was in front of them while the Wizard was busy doing things. “Hey. You wanna go to the Void right?”

“Um yeah…”

“Is the blond bombshell going with you?”

“What? No.”

Morgana grinned and handed Sebastian a scepter with a large yellow gem in it. “Good. You’ll need this. It’s a demon zapper. You point it at the demon and think about killing it and it does the rest. Kick back is a bit of a bitch but hey you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly.”

Sebastian looked at the scepter. It looking like it was made from some kind of animal bone covered in lacquer, and the gem seemed to be giving off the same energy as the Yoba rings were. “... Alright. I guess all I need now is to actually convince the Wizard to take me to the Void with him.”

“Who needs his permission from that asshole?” She shoved Sebastian backwards. Instead of hitting the wall he continued to fall backwards into a sea of swirling purples and blacks. “Do a flip!” Called Morgana. “Try not to die on impact!”

Sebastian practically screamed every swear word under the sun five times over as he fell. It felt like he was falling forever, maybe even speeding up. He felt like he was going to be sick. Suddenly the vortex broke away and he was falling towards the ground above a forest. He was going to hit the ground he just knew it. As he sped towards his imminent demise he closed his eyes and waited for sudden death.

Thankfully that didn’t come and he actually stopped mere inches above the ground for a few seconds before gravity kicked in and he fell harmlessly onto the ground. He stayed there for a few moments trying to get his bearings. He was still super dizzy from the fall.

After a few seconds a vortex opened up next to him and the Wizard walked through. He did not seem amused. “Of course Morgana would do something like this… Are you okay there Sebastian?”

He slowly sat up and glared at the Wizard. “What the fuck was that? Why the fuck did I almost fall to my death but you just walk through a ground level portal?”

“Because Morgana is rude and doesn’t care for making people feel comfortable. Anyway, we’re here now...”

“Is Sam okay?”

The Wizard nodded and held the birdcage out. It floated in the air and the mummified hand started to spin around. It was searching for the rest of itself. “Sam is fine. Morgana has no interest in him… Looks like we should be heading that way…” He waved his hand and the birdcage floated in front of him. “... Alright, this should be all good right now.”

Sebastian nodded a little and stood up, finally taking in his surroundings properly. It looked like they were in some kind of forest full of dead trees and charred plants. Every tree branch looked like a gnarled claw and any bit of greenery looked like it was dry and brittle. The sky looked like a continuous swirling vortex of purples and reds. It was like a twisted forest from a video game. It might look cool if it wasn’t for the fact that everything in this place was probably going to murder him.

The Wizard looked over at Sebastian and saw the scepter he was holding. “Ah, I see Morgana gave you her scepter. Nice to know she isn’t totally irresponsible… Now you are wearing the Yoba rings I gave you, right?” 

“Yeah.” He held his hands up for the Wizard to see.

“Good. As long as you don’t physically interact with demons or accidentally make a loud noise when you’re around them you should remain invisible to them, which is what we want unless you have a death wish. Demons like eating human flesh.”

“... I see…” Now Sebastian felt a little less confident. “So um, how many times have you been in the Void?”

The Wizard shrugged as he started to follow the floating birdcage. “A small handful of times. Sometimes I need to gather ingredients that I can only find in the Void. I try not to stay here for too long though. The longer you’re in one reality the more warped time gets back home.”

Sebastian quickly followed behind him, ducking out of the way of some weird flying thing with too many legs. “How warped are we talking here?”

“Like I said before the, time is weird. It’s never a set one to one between dimensions. It’s like trying to go straight across a river. Depending on how fast the flow of the water is changes where you end up on the other side. It might have just been an hour since you last saw Apollyon but here it could have been a century or two since he fell through. Maybe even a thousand years.”

“... How the hell are we going to get back to the right time when we’re done?”

“I managed to create an anchor rune so we will come back around the same time as I left, give or take a few minutes.”

“Okay…” The two of them continued to walk through the forest, eventually breaking through to a clearing on a hill. It overlooked a swampy looking area covered in a relatively thick purple haze. Off in the distance it looked like there was some kind of cityscape, though it seemed to be constructed from non-euclidean geometry. Something he’d only really seen in sculptures and paintings. Honestly it was kind of off putting. 

As he studied that something close in his line of vision started to shit and move; the peak of a mountain shifted and unfurled to display some kind of wretched worm. He saw it flex its enormous jaws before it shambled down the side of the mountain it was perched on. Thankfully it was in the opposite direction to where he and the Wizard were.

“Holy shit…”

“Yeah, some demon’s can get pretty big.” Said the Wizard. “Thankfully a demon’s intelligence seems to wane after they reach a certain size… Usually. It all depends on the species. Anyway, let’s keep going. The hand says we need to go down.”

The two of them continued to walk towards the swamp, being careful to stay out of the damper and muddier parts of the swamp when they could help it. Sebastian hated it. If he’d have known he was going to be walking through a swamp he could have worn shoes that weren’t canvas. Also, they whole place stunk worse than a normal stagnant swamp. Everything just smelt way more rotten and decayed than anywhere else. Maybe demons just smelt bad or something?

Eventually they got to a part of the swamp that was covered in a particularly thick purple haze. With a wave of the Wizard’s hand the fog immediately in front of them dissipated and revealed several black oil coloured slugs feasting on the decayed bones of a long dead demon. From its body shape it reminded Sebastian a lot of the demon that too Apollyon.

The Wizard made a slightly annoyed sound. “Of course these things are everywhere. They eat everything that comes their way. This area’s natural clean up crew. They are practically Void essence in a thin skin bubble. Good for spells and a good source of food for demons… I believe that’s what Apollyon used to be.”

Sebastian nodded in agreement. From what he had said about himself this thing probably was what Apollyon’s true demon form was. In a weird way it was kind of cute. Maybe. It had an interesting oil like pattern. “Yeah…”

“Strange how they are eating one of these though…”

“How so?”

“Well it’s kind of small and they usually grow to be a lot bigger than this… I guess it got sick or something? Oh well, let’s keep going.” He checked the birdcage. “The hand says we go to the right.”

Sebastian nodded and followed him. “So like, what happens of we step on one of these slugs? Are they going to attack us?”

“No. They are extremely passive things with amazing regenerative abilities. Plus they only eat dead things. As long as we stay alive we should be fine.”

“Right.” 

They continued to walk, heading out of the thick haze and towards a clearer area devoid of haze. However being able to see more clearly just meant that they ended up seeing more demon corpses littered about the place. All of them were in various stages of decay. It was gross, but at least the place didn’t have too many fresh bodies. He didn’t think he could handle seeing too many guts or fresh body parts around.

They continued walking along until they came to a cave by the swamp that was just covered in bones, but the bones were purposely placed around it in a decorative manner. Maybe it was a warning? It gave Sebastian an uneasy feeling.

“Maybe we shouldn’t go in there?” He suggested.

The Wizard ignored him and walked in anyway. “We can’t. The hand says we go this way.”

Sebastian gripped his scepter a little tighter and followed the Wizard inside. It didn’t look particularly good or anything, but it did look lived in. As they walked a little deeper Sebastian was surprised to see the gemstone on his scepter light up a little like a torch. As they continued to follow the hand Sebastian started to notice some cave drawings and stopped dead in his tracks.

“Hey, this is Pelican town.”

The Wizard paused and looked at the drawings on the wall with him. Sure enough a map of the town had been crudely scrawled onto the wall. It was all there; Cindersap forest, the train station, the quarry, the library, everything. Near the map were a bunch of tally marks. There must have been well over a hundred but the ones closest to the floor had been dug out of the wall with violence. 

“... How many days has it been for him?” Asked Sebastian, but he dreaded an answer.

“Looks like well over a few years. Can’t say for sure how long it has been…” He looked birdcage and followed it for a few more feet before he crouched behind a rock and made a disgusted sound. “Well… Good news bad news time.”

“Fuck, he isn’t dead is he?!”

“Physically I’d say no, but…” The Wizard picked up a pair of old tattered pants, a ripped shirt and some weird brown material. “It seems as though the Apollyon we know disgardered his clothes years ago, along with his skin.”

Sebastian was horrified. He pointed to the brown material. “That’s his skin? He took off his skin? Can he even do that?”

The Wizard shrugged and placed the items back where he found them. “Apollyon is a completely different kind of demon now. After getting his new body he never consumed large amounts of Void essence. I’d hazard a guess that maybe after so many years living as a human his own natural Void essence might have started to become diluted just from not being here… But everything here is filled with Void essence. His body will become supercharged and there’s no telling what could happen to him now. He could be like some meat head roided out on steroids.”

“All the more reason we should find him now.” Stressed Sebastian. “Come on. We have to get moving now. He could be anywhere.”

The Wizard gave Sebastian a stern look. “Sebastian, I’m trying to warn you about Apollyon. He’s probably not the same person. No, he is not the same person at all. He’s going to be a full on demon. You see those bones out there? Apollyon has been eating apex predators. Hell, he is an apex predator. Even if we find him I don’t know if we can bring him back… You should prepare yourself for that.”

“It will be okay. We just need to find him.” Sebastian didn’t want to admit it but he was genuinely worried about Apollyon not being able to remember him and being completely consumed by his demonic nature. He didn’t know what he would do if that was the case. “We just need to find him…”

The pair exited the cave and the Wizard started doing something with the hand in the birdcage. “While I’m fixing this try shooting some of the slugs with your scepter.”

Sebastian frowned a little as he looked between his scepter and a few of the slugs that were milling around. “Do I have to?”

“They won’t care. It’ll just be an annoyance to them.”

Sebastian sighed a little and pointed the scepter in the direction of a slug crawling across the ground. “... Bang, I guess?” A bolt of yellow lightning shot out from the scepter, hit the slug and launched it across the swamp. “Fuck!” He did not expect that to happen. 

Suddenly the two of them heard a monsterous rumbling over the top of the hill. Curious as to what it was the two of them ventured to the top only to see some grotesque looking worm thing with multiple legs fighting with weird demon thing that looked like it had some mossy forest growing on its back. Thankfully these things were fighting in some valley away from them and wouldn’t notice them at all.

The worm grabbed hold of the other creature and tried to pull it into its mouth. However the other creature bent its head down and shot several barbs down the worms throat. Seconds later the barbs exploded out the back of the worm, showering the area in chunks of meat and Void essence. It reminded Sebastian of an old school kaiju fight.

The Wizard waved his hand and cast a protective barrier around them to shield them from the fallout. “Huh, haven’t seen something like this in real life before.” The worm monster fell to the ground dead and the other monster started to dig into it, ripping off chunks and swallowing it the way a crocodile would consume their food.

“Yeah, me neither.” While the fight was interesting to see they needed to get back to finding Apollyon. “Let’s get going.”

The Wizard nodded in agreement and looked back down at the hand the the birdcage. “... That’s odd.” He waved his hand over it and muttered some words then looked at it again. “... Oh, well that’s… Oh dear…”

“What now?”

The Wizard gestured to the demon eating the giant worm. “The demon there… I’ll give you one guess as to who that is.”

“... Holy shit! Is that Apollyon?!”

“Yep.”

Sebastian was dumbfounded. This giant thing was Apollyon? How long had it been in the Void since they had seen each other? How many years had Apollyon had to survive here? How long had it been since Apollyon had given up any hope of being rescued? And most importantly, how the holy hell were they going to get Apollyon back to Pelican town?


	72. Warped time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, it'll probably be about a week before I'm able to post a new chapter. Next week is super busy for me with family/friend stuff. So enjoy this chapter and all it has to offer. Kudos and comment when you can :D

The first week had been tough. Demons kept creeping into his cave to try and get at him but he fought back and decorated his cave with their bones. As the days went by he started drawing Pelican town on the cave wall. He wanted to remember it. Remember what he had to go back to. That was enough for him, for a while.

After about a year of surviving he had started to give up thinking that someone would come and help him and he was starting to become trapped in his memories. Memories of working in Pelican town and being with people. He missed it all so much. For a short while he attempted to relive farming by actually starting a farm near his cave, but he had no seeds.

After a decade he stopped counting how many days he had been stuck there. Everyone was gone. He spent his days surviving and dreaming of the past. Everyone, everyone was gone. He was alone and he… He could hardly remember what they looked like now. Hell he could hardly remember their names. He couldn’t recall what his mum looked like or Sebastian.

Half a century went by and Apollyon was starting to grow too big for the cave he had called his home. By that time he had long ago discarded his clothes since they would either get caught on things or became too tight for his ever changing physique. In this world he had to fight to survive and when every fight was a fight to the death his body wasn’t given the time to heal into a proper human form. His skin was getting too tight too. It couldn’t heal fast enough with everything else. So he pulled it off and left it with the rest of his humanity and left the cave for the last time.

For the next few decades he wandered around the swamp and surrounding area eating whatever he could. It quickly became a cycle of hunt, eat, sleep. He went where the food was and that slowly head to him finding larger and larger demons to consume. He didn’t care what it was he would fight it. He didn’t care how deep it cut him or what body parts it removed from him, he would kill it and eat it.

After a good meal he would rest for who knows how long? Long enough for things to grow on his back apparently. He didn’t care. The things on his back didn’t stop him from what he wanted to do.

After so many decades of eating whatever came his way he needed bigger prey. He wanted to move out of the swampy area. He needed to find bigger things to eat. It was during his walk he happened to run into some burrowing demon thing with lots of hands. These grotesque things usually stayed hidden underground and hardly ever came to the surface.

It didn't really matter though. Apollyon tore it down and ate it. It was good meat. Full of Void essence but he wanted more. Underground seemed like the best option at this point. There would be more of these down below. That would be good. The worm creatures down there would be larger and better for him to eat.

If he continued to grow and change at this rate he would probably end up becoming some kind of giant monstrosity that would end up being some kind of sleeping beast that lesser demons would never dare to wake up. If that happened then maybe, just maybe he could access the subconscious part of his brain and relive what he couldn’t remember.

After finished his feast Apollyon went and slowly climbed his way out of the valley. He would find a cave large enough for him to crawl into and make his way into the depths of the Void. Once again he would just eat anyone or anything that came his way.

As he moved he felt something hit his leg. It was kind of like getting poked in the ankle with a twig. He looked down at the ground and saw a strange sight. It looked like a little purple man in a funny hat. He was strange and with him was another funny man wearing all black. Strange things. Not worth his time though. They were too small for him to eat. He just ignored them and continued to walk.

He felt a few more annoying jabs at his leg, but that didn’t really matter too much to him. However when he felt something pierce his side and it hurt like a bitch. It felt like someone stabbed him with something. He looked down at the two things that had attacked him and frowned. Sure, they were insignificant in the long run, but they attacked him first.

He raised his fist and swiftly brought it down onto the two individuals and twisted his fist to make sure they were completely mashed into the ground. Satisfied that they were completely crushed Apollyon continued on.

However he felt another piercing strike in his leg and he whipped around to see that the two annoying things had crawled out of the fist shaped hole he had made moments earlier. These things seemed to be very resilient and after him for some reason. Whatever. He was going to crush them and continue on his way.

He took a swipe at the purple looking one only to get hit with some painful spell. So it was the one wearing black that was annoying him? He’d take care of that one first. He went to grab them but the purple one hit him right in the eyes that felt really cold and stung like a bitch.

In pain he reared back as he howled, but that just left him open for the one in black to hit him in the stomach with another painful blow. Apollyon wasn’t stupid, these two things were trying to tag team him. Hit him with one attack and when he gets distracted they would hit him somewhere else. These things were smart, but he was smarter.

When the purple thing struck him, Apollyon went for him and refused to get distracted by the pain that stabbed him in the shoulder. He grabbed hold of the purple figure and threw him out of the valley. As the figure flew out of sight Apollyon noticed an aura of yellow light surrounding them. Weird.

Now his attention was fully on the other figure in black. It stood still for a few seconds, possibly shocked their companion was thrown away so easily. During this moment of shock, Apollyon easily grabbed them and lifted them up to his face to have a good look at them while they decided how to get rid of them. He could pull their limbs off, he hadn’t done that in a while. He could also see how many times he could throw them into the ground before they fell to pieces, another fun thing. He could also just swallow them whole and let their digestive juices melt them. That sounded fun. A wicked grin spread across his face. If the purple one was alive they would know better than to try and attack him again after this.

He held the thing a little closer to see what kind of demon it was. He hadn’t seen something like this before or at least in a long time. It was hard to remember much about the past. He didn’t try anymore these days. Living day to day was much easier and worked just fine for him.

The thing he was holding was squirming and yelling something out, but he couldn’t hear what it was saying. It was funny. Eventually the thing stopped squirming and dropped something. It looked like they had just given up completely. Now that was disappointing. They brought the small creature to their mouth and went to drop them into their mouth when the wind changed direction and they caught the scent of the weird little creature.

He paused for a moment and sniffed the small thing. It was something he knew. Something deep in the back of his mind that he knew well and brought him comfort. This scent was so comforting and made him feel happy. Where did he know this from? It reminded him of, trees, birds chirping, snow, laughter, love, humans, and Sebastian.

Sebastian. That young man that fell in love with him. The man that accepted him and cared for him when other people didn’t. Someone he had died for. Someone he would die for again. This thing… Was it Sebastian? It had to be, but it couldn’t be, could it? It had to be. It was Sebastian.

Apollyon carefully put down Sebastian and lied down near him. His memories were quickly flooding back about his time in Pelican town; arriving by bus, meeting Sebastian while he was crying in the rain, the Junimo’s making him their hero, Morgana casting spells on him, admitting his feelings to Sebastian in the spa, dying for Sebastian, fighting the Gar-dinner, and the cultists. He felt like his mind was going to explode from this rush of memories and his world slowly blacked out.

***

Sebastian felt like he was going to faint. Maybe it was a shitty idea to try and zap him till the Wizard knocked him out so they could figure out what to do with him without him running off on them. But yeah, they really should have thought of something better. The Wizard only just saved them from getting crushed by Apollyon’s fists only for him to get tossed away like he was nothing. Then Apollyon tried to eat him. That was messed up.

However on the plus side, Apollyon seems to have been calm now. But on the bad side he kind of dropped his scepter, the Wizard was gone, and he had no idea what to do now. “Fucking hell…”

The Wizard made his way back down into the valley, looking a little disheveled. “Well… that was a thing that happened. Glad you’re still alive.”

“Yeah, me too… What now?”

The Wizard walked up to Apollyon, picked up the scepter Sebastian dropped, and poked Apollyon’s face with it. “... Well he’s been knocked out so that’s good. I wonder if there’s a way I can shrink him down?” He mused out loud to himself. “... Yes, probably… Okay, this will do.” He passed Sebastian the scepter and started to draw a few symbols on Apollyon’s face. 

Sebastian stood back and let the Wizard do his thing while he kept an eye out for any demons that might come by. He hoped that the Wizard knew what he was doing. He wanted to get home as soon as possible. He couldn’t even imagine what Apollyon had gone through staying here. He had hoped that the small heartfelt speech he gave Apollyon had sunk in somewhat.

He had told him how he was sorry for not getting to him sooner, how he didn’t want to fight him anymore and how they could go home together. If that was part of the reason he calmed down that would make him happy, but he didn’t really feel like that was the case. However hope was eternal and by Yoba he was going to keep believing that.

Suddenly the Wizard walked over to him and took the scepter back. “This should be done in a moment.” He pointed the scepter at the markings he made on Apollyon and fired. There was a thunderous crack that shook the entire valley then everything was still. A large crack suddenly split down Apollyon’s head and it caved in. It was completely empty like the discarded shell of an insect.

“... How the fuck was that meant to help?” Snapped Sebastian. “Did you fucking kill him or something?”

The Wizard rolled his eyes. “Give me a little more faith than that. I just kind of forcefully condensed him back into human form. It is affective but at the same time… You know how you need to crack an egg and break the yolk before you cook it in a microwave or it’ll explode?”

“... Yeah?” He didn’t like where this was going.

“Well… Let’s just say Apollyon is not going to be happy. You better hope those Yoba rings work on something like him.”

Sebastian hoped that too and kind of stepped behind the Wizard since he had no idea what was going to happen now. 

The crumbled remains started to shift and slowly a strange looking humanoid creature pulled themselves out of there.Their body did look humanoid but their skin still had the black oil colouring of the slugs. It took a few steps towards them before it fell to its knees and started to vomit up a river of Void essence. It was pretty gross to say the least, but at least he didn’t look as shiny as he used to. However he did end up collapsing in the Void essence and passing out.

“Ah… Well, okay…” Muttered the Wizard. “Good news he’s back to whatever normal is for him. Let’s get him out of here before some demon comes poking around and tries to eat us.” He draped his cape over Apollyon’s body and started to draw symbols on the ground.

Sebastian walked over to Apollyon and crouched down next to him. He still looked like his body was covered in black oil but his facial features were distinctly Apollyon. Sebastian lightly touched his skin. He was warm to the touch.

“Okay, let’s drag him back.” The Wizard picked up Apollyon and with Sebastian’s help they dragged him towards the markings the Wizard drew on the ground. Once they stepped on the symbols a blur of light rushed past Sebastian’s eyes and the worst sense of vertigo overtook him.

He stumbled and almost fell over but managed to catch himself before Sebastian could fall face first onto the floor of the Wizard’s tower. Much to Sebastian’s surprise it looked like Sam was playing cards with Morgana. “... Seriously? She could have killed me and you’re playing cards with her?”

Morgana rolled her eyes. “Shut up brat. I have a good hand here.”

Sam folded and quickly went over to help them. “Damn, is that Apollyon? What the hell happened to him?”

“He’s full of Void essence.” Said the Wizard as he dragged him over to the painted magic circle in his house. “We just need to let him rest and recover for a little while… get him used to this realm again… Maybe I should call Elizabeth about this?”

Morgana looked at Apollyon and frowned. “Wow, that guy’s really fucked up. How long was he lost in the Void for?”

“A few hundred years minimum.” Clarified the Wizard. “He had gorged himself on so much Void essence it looked like a bloody mountain… Why does all this demons stuff always have to happen in winter? You know what? Next year, winter is canceled! No more winter! It’s a stupid season!”

Morgana rolled her eyes. “Whatever… You know I kind of thought you two would have been more beat up after all the shit you went through.”

“Apollyon ate pretty much everything over the decades.” Muttered the Wizard as he patted himself down. “Now where did I put my cell phone?” He looked over at Sam and Sebastian. “Well you two can go now. Nothing more you can do for the moment.”

The boys nodded and left the tower without saying a word, though one was more reluctant than the other. They walked in silence but once they were back to town Sebastian spoke up. “I need to help him Sam.”

“Hmm?”

“Apollyon. I still need to help him.”

Sam gave Sebastian a confused look. “Dude, you went to the Void for him. I think you’ve done enough for him at the moment. Just relax for a bit. You have one hell of a story to tell me and Abigail once you’ve calmed down a bit.”

Sebastian sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He knew Sam was right. He needed to calm down a little. He had just been to the Void and was thankful that he didn’t suddenly die on the spot or face any real demonic threats but still, he wanted to be useful to Apollyon somehow. Suddenly he got an idea. Sure it was a stupid idea, but it was damn well safer than whatever Apollyon had done.

He grabbed Sam’s arm and pulled him towards Pierre's shop. “Hey, what’s the big deal?” 

“Sam, I have a plan.”


	73. Cheers to dumb plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to find a few hours in between all my stuff to write this. Hope you all enjoy it. Kudos and comments are very much appreciated :D

Abigail was extremely confused as to why Sebastian and Sam suddenly turned up in her bedroom, and why Sebastian was going through her books while smelling like he just swam through a swamp. He was tracking mud everywhere. She just wanted to try and beat the single player campaign in Journey of the Prairie King. Needless to say she wasn’t doing too well.

She looked over at Sam who looked just as confused as she did. “So… What crazy thing did you two get up to?”

Sam shrugged. “Look, I got no clue. I wanted to just have a guys night with Sebastian, but then Apollyon butt dialed him and well, Sebastian bolted for the farm… Where Apollyon was summoning a demon.”

“... He what?”

“Then the demon pulled him into the Void with them.”

“Are you serious?”

“We spoke to the Wizard and he decided to go into the Void to get Apollyon back.”

“What?” Each thing coming from Sam’s mouth was starting to piss her off. She couldn’t believe she wasn’t part of this magic adventure.

“Then the witch showed up and shoved Sebastian into the Void.”

“HE WHAT?!”

“And apparently time is all weird there so even though Apollyon was gone for like an hour here he was in the Void for centuries.”

“WHAT?!”

“Yeah, and when they came back Apollyon looked like he was this human shaped inky oil thing. The Wizard says he’s gonna need to rest up and get used to being here and not there again.”

Abby threw her hands up in the air. “Are you kidding me? You two go off and have some magic adventure while I’m stuck here? This is because I don’t have a dick isn’t it?”

“What? No. Just bad timing.”

Abby pouted and crossed her arms, clearly sulking now. “Well what are you guys doing here now? Come to gloat?”

Sebastian shook his head. “The book. Where is it?”

“Which book? I have many.”

Sebastian made some absurd hand gestures. “You know, the book. The one with the demons and the angels and shit in it. That one.”

Abby took it out of her bag and held it up. “You mean this?” Sebastian quickly snatched it out of her hand and started flipping through it. “Hey! What the fuck is your problem?” He ignored her. “Hey I’m talking to you, you asshole!”

Sam calmly pulled her aside. “Hey, I know he’s being kind of weird now, but cut him a little slack? He’s just been to the Void. I have no idea what he saw or what went on there but it probably wasn’t too good for his brain. Let’s just humour him for the time being. Okay?”

It was unfortunate but Sam did make a good point. Sebastian was all worked up about something but eventually he would burn out and relax a little. Then again it was pretty late at night. This was like the afternoon for Sebastian.

“Fine, but if he messes up my book you’re going to pay for a new one.”

“Deal.”

“Found it!” Cried Sebastian.

His friends let out a collective sigh of relief. “What did you find?” Asked Sam.

Sebastian quickly showed them a picture of a Junimo. “These guys. It’s all here.” He quickly ran his finger down the page and started reading. “Junimo’s a forest spirits sent from the Yoba plane to our plane of existence to serve Yoba. Blah, blah, blah… Childlike and innocent they follow the orders of Yoba as if following the orders of a parent, blah, blah, blah… The only defence Junimo’s have is to summon and or transport themselves back to the Yoba plane. Get it?”

His friends were starting to become mildly concerned with Sebastian;s ravings. “Get what?” Asked Abby.

“Isn’t it obvious?” He asked. “We’re going to get a Junimo to get us some face time with Yoba.” That was it, Sebastian had lost his mind in the Void and now was a crazy person. There was only one thing for it now. Abby too the book out of Sebastian’s hands and smacked him in the forehead with it. “Ow! The fuck Abby?”

Abby glared at him and put her hands on her hips in what Sam had dubbed the Abby power stance. “Don’t you the fuck Abby me you dick. You can’t just come into my room at seven at night and start going on about crazy magic shit then claim we’re going to talk to Yoba. Bitch we have more of a chance using my ouija board to talk to the pizza Sam at for breakfast.”

“Hey, don’t knock breakfast pizza.” Whined Sam.

“Whatever. Point being, Seb, removed that stick from your ass and stop acting like a massive thunder cunt when aunt flow is in town.”

Both boys were shocked by Abby’s use of words but it did somewhat seem to calm Sebastian down a little. “Okay, fine. I’m acting like an asshole-”

“Thunder cunt.” Corrected Abby.

“Yes, that… Anyway, I really need to see if this idea works right now before I completely forget about it or come up with too many reasons as to why it’s not going to work.” He rubbed his forehead a little and sighed, quickly losing all his enthusiasm from seconds ago. “Look, I know it’s a dumb idea and it’s not going to work… I don’t even know if the Junimo’s will talk to me or even understand me, and it’ll probably go as well as what happened with Apollyon…”

While it pained Abby to see Sebastian suddenly so sad she had a more pressing issue. “Wait, Junimo’s are a real thing?”

Sebastian nodded. “Yeah. There’s a whole bunch of them living up in the community center.”

With an exaggerated sigh Abby grabbed a can of deodorant and her bag. “Come on you two. We’re going to the community center.” The boys both looked surprised. “What? I’ve dragged your dumb asses to worse places than there in the middle of the night. But first-” She popped the top off the can and doused Sebastian in the floral scent, making him cough and gag. “Now you smell less like a walking pile of bigfoot shit.”

Sebastian continued to cough and splutter as the trio walked up to the community center. When they got inside Sam and Abby were surprised to see how nicer it was now. It didn’t look like complete shit.

Sam let out a low whistle. “Wow… This place almost looks good. Still a hole in the roof there though.” 

Sebastian ignored that and started looking through the rooms as he called out to the Junimos. “Hello? Hey Junimos I need your help. It has to do with Apollyon! You know me, just come out already!”

As he did this Sam and Abigail shared worried looks. Surely this was just to humor him since they didn’t expect Junimos to be living in the community center. At this point neither doubted that Junimos were real. If anything they kind of doubted that they actually lived here. Sebastian probably hit his head really hard when he was in the Void.

“Come on!” He called out. “Sam and Abigail already know about Apollyon. They saw him in his demon form. They are cool with him. They will be cool with you. Come on already! I’m Apollyon’s boyfriend. Don’t I get some special treatment?”

The whole building stayed quiet and Sebastian looked completely defeated. It broke Abby’s heart, but Sebastian needed to take a nap or something. “We can try again tomorrow. Apollyon’s going to be fine till then, right?”

“I guess…”

“Pip!”

Abby frowned a little. “Did you say something Sam?”

“No. I thought that was you.”

“Pip! Pip! Breeeeeeee!” Abby and Sam looked down only to see a green apple looking thing with stick arms waving up at them. “Squee!”

Sam screamed and hid behind Abby, who also screamed and attempted to jump into Sam’s arms. This only served to messing up both their coordination and made them both fall on their asses.

Sebastian walked over to them and looked down at the walking, talking apple. “Hey Green. So this is Abby and Sam. Sam is the blond and Abby has purple hair. Where’s everyone else?” Green waved their arms and made many more noises. “I see.”

Abby was dumbfounded. She made a mental note to stop doubting Sebastian when it came to finding weird magical creatures. Apparently he knew a lot about this stuff. “So… You can speak to Junimos?” Asked Abby.

“That’s so cool!” Said Sam. “What is it saying?”

Sebastian shrugged. “I have no idea. I can’t speak Junimo.” He sat down and Green climbed up onto his leg.

“Pip?”

“Okay, so here is the deal-” started Sebastian. “-Apollyon got sucked into the Void and since time is weird there and I have no idea how it’s supposed to work he ended up staying there for a few hundred years or so.”

Green looked shocked and looked over at Sam and Abby. “Squee? Bree? Pip, pip, bree squee bree?”

Abby shrugged. “I have no idea little buddy.”

“Squee?!” Abby turned her head and there was a blue Junimo standing next to them with a pointy stick. They waved at Sam and Abigail. “Pip, pip!”

Sam grinned down at it and offered his finger over for Blue to shake. “Hey there. I’m Sam.”

Blue looked at his finger than up at him. “Squee?” It jabbed Sam in the finger and quickly waddled over to Green and Sebastian. “Pip! Bree! Squee?”

“Squee.” Said Green as he looked up at Sebastian.

Sebastian sighed a little. “Anyway, he’s messed up and I need you guys to like, maybe summon an angel that can help Apollyon or like, open some gate to the Yoba plane so I can talk to Yoba.”

At the mention of Yoba, several other Junimos popped out of hiding and scared the crap out of the trio. It was like they were crawling out of the woodwork. But is was hard to tell if they were happy that Sebastian was talking about Yoba or not. Either way they were all screaming, and shouting, and waving their stick arms around like they were fighting about something. It reminded Abby of a bunch of squeaky toys.

Eventually a white Junimo with a little cane climbed up onto the mantle above the fireplace and started squeaking loudly. The other Junimos seemed to listen to White. She wondered what they were talking about.

***

White stood proud and tallish over the other Junimos. “Okay, so the Hero’s partner wants to open up a gateway to Yoba. We all know what that means, right?”

“Bad things!”

“No good!”

“Don’t do it!”

“Someone’s gonna get their butt kicked!”

“None of this good, all bad!”

“Don’t do it!”

Green didn’t like the way that the other Junimos were talking. They quickly climbed up with White to address the rest. “Hey! Why are we all being dumb about this? The Hero has helped us so much since they got here! What have we done for them?”

“Fix the bus?”

“Gave them seeds?”

“Fixed the minecart?”

“Apart from that!” Snapped Green. The paced around a little. “... Look! The Hero has been really good to us. Everything we have done has been to make the valley better. What have we done that was just for them?” The Junimos went quiet. “Yeah, exactly!”

Purple put their hand up. “Um, but won’t we get out butts burnt if we try to open a gate to the Yoba plane now? We aren’t at full power and won’t be till all the scrolls are finished.”

“Yeah, that’s bad! That’s bad!”

“So bad!”

“We’ll get in trouble!”

“Yoba will be mad!”

“I don’t want Yoba to get mad at me!”

White tapped their cane against the mantle. “We do have enough power to open a gateway. We just… might get a stern talking to if we do that… Yeah…” White stood there in deep thought for a moment. “Yes… My fellow Junimos, I think Green is right. We should open up a gateway to the Yoba plane so that the Hero might talk to Yoba.”

Some of the Junimos were on board but others were still sceptical about the whole thing. Green stepped in to speak again. “The Hero never asks us for anything! And now they can’t do it even if they tried! The Hero’s partner had to come and ask us for help! We have a duty as Junimos to help those who help us. The Hero is helping us and now we have a chance to really help them!”

“But I am le tired.”

“Then take a nap. Then we help the Hero! Who is with me?!” The rest of the Junimo cheered and clapped their little stick arms together, easily swayed by Green’s speech.

“Let’s get ready!”

“We can do this!”

“Let’s talk with the Wizard so we can get this all organized!”

“Yeah, yeah! Let’s do that!”

“Help the Hero! Hero of the valley!”

***

With that the Junimos scattered just as quickly as they appeared moments before, leaving the human trio very confused. None of them had any idea if the Junimos agreed to help Apollyon of not. But it seemed positive.

Sam sighed a little and started to walk to the door. “Right, only one thing to do now that all this crazy shit has happened.”

“Where are you going Sammy?” Asked Abby.

“I’m going to get drunk. Honestly, there is only so much of this crazy magic stuff I can handle. I have to get drunk once in a while to deal with this nonsense.”

“I second that.” Said Abby. “Though I can handle way more magic nonsense.” She linked arms with Sebastian and pulled him along. “Come along, you are going to get smashed.”

“Huh? But I still have stuff to do. Apollyon-”

“Is still going to be in the Wizard’s tower tomorrow.” Said Sam. “Get smashed and go to sleep. You can go and see him tomorrow.”

“And take me with you damn it!” Whined Abby. “I want to get involved with this magic stuff.” With much reluctance from Sebastian the trip headed to the saloon.


	74. Misery loves company

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. If you haven't guessed from the name of this chapter it's gonna be nothing but a rollercoaster of negativity. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Apollyon’s head was swimming. Memories were colliding and smashing together in his brain creating scenarios full of contradictions and plot holes that gave him a splitting heachache. He could hardly register where he was or what he was doing anymore. He felt like he was laying down but he could be standing up. It was practically impossible for him to tell anymore.

But there was something he wanted to do, maybe. Someone he wanted to meet, maybe. Sebastian? Yes. But wasn’t he dead? No he wasn’t. That memory didn’t happen. But he could have sworn he gutted him, but if he did that then he couldn’t have snapped his neck later, or was that earlier? His more recent memories were getting mixed with the old. 

It was annoying. He hated not being able to trust his own mind, but there was nothing much else he could do at this point. He didn’t even know if what he was seeing was real, being back in Stardew Valley. He could have been having some kind of mental break down. It honestly wouldn’t have been the first time after centuries of being stuck in that place.

If this was a delusion he wanted it to be over soon. He wanted to just go on existing, and if he couldn’t exist in this world then he wanted to wake up to Sebastian. A perfect dream that he hadn’t dared touch in decades. Hell he didn’t have much in the way of dreams or nightmares or anything like that went he slept anymore. He just slept when he was tired and woke up when he was hungry.

He slowly opened his eyes only to stare at the stone wall of the Wizard’s tower. He wanted to wake up to Sebastian one more time. But it had been so long, too long. Even if he really had gone back to Stardew Valley and hadn’t snapped again there was no way Sebastian would even be alive now, would he? He would have died decades ago after living a long, full life with someone else. 

He could just imagine it now; Sebastian moving to the city like he had always dreamed and meeting some sexy guy, they would date for a few months, move in together, and then after a year or two they would get married. They would get married and adopt a kid, move into a fancy home and spend the rest of their lives in love and Sebastian would never have a second thought about him. He was probably buried next to his lover, side by side in some family burial plot. 

That was for the best. Sebastian deserved someone who was able to love him the way he couldn’t. Someone who could give him all the things he needed and ask for nothing in return. If only he could have done that. If only he could have pushed his own desires aside and just let it be. He fucked everything over for himself, but that was okay. Sebastian found someone else. He was happy without him. This was a good thing. Really. It was.

***

Morgana looked up from her book to glare daggers at Apollyon. “How fucking long is that thing going to cry? It hasn’t stopped for days.”

The Wizard looked up from his own book and glared at her. “If it is annoying you so much you can leave. I have things under control here. I contacted Elizabeth and she should be here shortly. Apparently she already had her bags packed and ready to go because she had a feeling Apollyon was going to head down his darkest timeline yet, or something like that.”

Morgana hummed a little and continued to flip through her book. She was trying to figure out a way to get the excess Void essence out of Apollyon without sticking him in a juicer. “It’ll be nice to see her again. I didn’t have time to catch up with her the last time she was here.” She picked up another book, glancing over at Apollyon again. “... So how did his fuck buddy take going to the Void?”

The Wizard vizibly cringed when she said that. “Morgana, Sebastian is his boyfriend. But to answer your question, Sebastian seemed to take everything rather well. Just because he’s a human doesn’t mean he’s useless… He might have been useless if there were more demons around, but he did pretty well.”

“Huh, right…” She hummed a little to herself as she looked through another book. “So, since this whole summoning a demon thing failed, what to try talking to Yoba?”

“Don’t even think about it.” Muttered the Wizard. “Yoba wouldn’t interfere with something as trivial as this.”

“And why the bloody hell not? This seems kind of important and all supernatural and shit.” Snapped Morgana. “If the fucking creator can’t be bothered to their fat ass and take their own dick out of their mouth that they have been sucking since the dawn of man to help that fucking thing, why bother worshiping it? Yoba is a useless fuck! When was the last time magic from the Yoba plane did anything really useful?”

“I will not have you speaking ill of Yoba in my home Morgana!” Snapped the Wizard. “Yoba is all about balance where whatever you’re all about is only about chaos.”

Morgana flipped him off and continued to read, getting really angry as she did so. “You know, there is technically a way we could have given Apollyon a human body. But you had to be all high and mighty about it.”

“Stop it Morgana.”

“All we had to do was sneak into a hospital-”

“I said stop it.”

“Steal a newborn-”

“I said stop it!” The Wizard stood from his seat and slammed his book on the table. “Morgana, I know you have become evil enough to commit such an act, but to stop one curse by cursing another… Apollyon wouldn’t agree to murdering an innocent like that.”

“People do crazy things when they are desperate enough.” She smirked at him. “Is the reason you didn’t tell him about that spell because you knew he wouldn’t consider it, or because you knew he was desperate enough to transfer his demonic essence into an innocent baby while stealing its humanity?”

“Enough Morgana!” Yelled the Wizard. 

Suddenly the door opened up and Elizabeth walked in. “Raz, I came as soon as I could. Oh Morgana you’re here too. It’s nice to see you where is…?” She looked over to the dark shape in the pentagram. “Is that Apollyon?”

The Wizard sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Yes that is him… Like I explained he fell into the Void and you know how time and space is all strange between dimensions so… He was there for a very long time… I’m not sure what to do with all this now. He kind of looks like a human shaped demon slug thing.”

Elizabeth sighed a little and sat down beside Apollyon. “Poor child… He looked a lot like this when he was just a baby too. You two remember, right?”

“I remember.” Said Morgana. “I seriously thought you got fucked by a demon during you road trip around the country.”

Elizabeth laughed at that and happily patted Apollyon’s head. She had this nostalgic look on her face. “He was so small, but he was already so smart. He wandered around the house getting into all sorts of things. More than once he decided to sit in the fireplace and get soot all over the place… He never said why but I think he liked how dark it was in there.” She smiled when Apollyon leaned into her hand a little. “He was still getting used to seeing the world through human eyes… My poor sweet baby bean…”

“Where’s Colt?” Asked Morgana. “Usually that guy is right behind you.”

“Oh he’s working at the moment. Nothing he can’t handle.” She continued to gently pat Apollyon’s head. “... Why would you try to summon a demon love? You know how mean that can be.”

Morgana rolled her eyes. “Your dumb kid apparently wanted to make a deal to become human.”

Elizabeth sighed and shook her head, clearly disappointed. “Really? My poor baby… Why would he want to become human? That’s so… It’s almost insulting that he wants to be like us.”

“It might have to do with the fact he’s in love.” Suggested the Wizard. He went to make Elizabeth some tea. “He’s been raving on about wanting to be human so he can properly be in love with Sebastian or something like that… Wouldn’t be surprised if the fool was planning something stupid like proposing to him once he was human.”

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “That sounds like something he would do…” She carefully tilted his face so she could look directly at him. “My poor baby bean… To think that you went and hurt yourself so badly for a human… Your heart is way too pure for that.” 

This was starting to annoy Morgana. She had been friends with Elizabeth for a long time. A really long time. Through all that time she just couldn’t understand what she saw in her demon son. Hell, it wasn’t even her actual son when it came down to it. This thing was a demon that had possessed the body of her dead child as a means to escape the Void. 

It still remembered everything from its time in the Void and just adapted to make things easier for itself in this plane of existence. She beat any amount of money that the moment Apollyon felt there was no escape from the Void he shead the humanity he had and went right back into his demon habits. You can’t trust a demon not to do demon things. That was it, plane and simple. Elizabeth was much too trusting and coddled that demon way too much. It was going to end up biting that sweet woman in the ass one of these days, she just knew it.

Elizabeth hummed softly as she lovingly cradled his head in her lap. “How long has he been catatonic for?”

“A while.” Said the Wizard. He offered her some tea. “We have considered perhaps speeding time around him to possibly speed up the dispersion of his sudden Void essence build up?”

“After all he’s been through it might just be best to let him be.” She hummed softly and continued to gently cradle his head. “... How is Sebastian taking it? After everything that happened to him I just… I worry about him.”

Morgana shrugged. “His eyes hadn’t melted and he wasn’t screaming insane things in forgotten languages, so by our standards, he took it all really well.”

Elizabeth sighed and shook her head. “I should probably go and see him and make sure he’s okay… Maybe give him a blessing while I’m at it.” She carefully stood up and headed for the door. “Take care of my baby while I’m gone.”

“Will do.”

***

Sebastian felt like trash. He was a ball of anxiety and hangovers. Sure he had calmed down a lot since he talking to the Junimos. But he still had no idea if they were going to help him. Either way he shouldn’t have had that fifth beer. He didn’t even like beer. He needed to stop going drinking with his friends.

“Ergh…” He rolled over and fell off his couch. Apparently he didn’t make it to his bed last night and just decided to crash on his couch instead of walking a few feet to his bed. Granted he was impressed he made it down the stairs to his room without breaking his neck.

He stayed on the floor for a few minutes before he attempted to peel himself up. As he did he heard the footsteps to someone coming down the steps. He was prepared to tell his mum that he had a hangover, but was surprised to see Elizabeth waltz through his door.

“Sebastian? Are you here dear?” She looked down at the floor. “... Oh, there you are. Are you okay? Have you been drinking?”

Sebastian groaned a little and rested his head in his hands. “Yes… After everything that happened I kind of felt like I needed something…”

“Just like Colt…” She sighed a little and sat next to him. “Alright, let me fix this hangover of yours.” She muttered a few things under her breath and waved her hand in a pattern in front of his face before sharply poking him in the forehead.

“Ow!”

“Better?”

He grumbled a little and rubbed his forehead, apart from the pain of getting poked in the forehead, everything seemed fine. He actually felt better. “Yeah. Thanks. I think?”

She smiled and moved so that she was sitting in a lotus position. “Well now that that is over, I must ask you, are you alright?”

“Is this because you found me with a hangover?”

“Well, that and you smell like a swamp vomited on you and someone tried to pour perfume on you to cover up the smell of alcohol and awmp water. Not very nice.”

“... I should shower…”

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “You know, we really need to stop meeting under such stressing circumstances. We’re going to end up associating each other with death or something horrible to that effect.” 

Well, Sebastian couldn’t say that wasn’t true. He had pretty much just seen Elizabeth when something bad had happened. That probably wasn’t a good thing. Now that she was here she probably went to see Apollyon. Had she done that yet? Probably. The Wizard probably told her about everything that happened.

“So…” Said Elizabeth slowly. “Are you okay? That place is not a good place for one such as yourself to go. Magic protection or not if you aren’t mentally prepared for it, it can be a very disturbing experience… I wouldn’t wish that kind of mental torment on anyone, let alone a poor human.”

That made Sebastian groan. “No offence, but I wish you guys would shut up about that. Just because I am human doesn’t mean I’m useless. Yeah. I know I can’t cast magic and magic potions completely mess with my mind but I just… I wish you could respect me.”

She seemed surprised to hear that. “I wasn’t disrespecting you. I was just stating a fact. Magic isn’t just being physically strong enough to cast a spell it’s all a heavily mental practice that requires years of study to do without going insane. You going into the Void isn’t something to be treated lightly.”

“I’m not treating it lightly.” Muttered Sebastian. “Just don’t treat me like I’m stupid. I know what I did. I know what I am doing. I’m not a moron. I’m just trying to do what I can to support and help Apollyon become human.”

“I still cannot understand why he wants to become human.” Said Elizabeth. She sighed and leaned back looking around his room. “He’s a demon. He’s powerful he doesn’t need to… is that a bong?”

“I um, well you see… It’s um…” Sebastian had no idea how to get out of this. “I um It’s a vase.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Nope, it’s a bing. Nice colour. I have a couple at my place and a fancy hookah pipe. Mostly presents from the old days, but still nice enough. Oh boy I used to smoke a lot of dope back in the day… Anyway, Apollyon is a demon. I don’t see why he would want to change.”

Sebastian shrugged. “I don’t think the reason really matters that much. He wants to be human… Apollyon said you were pretty liberal about sexuality and stuff, right?”

“Yeah?”

“What if Apollyon was transgender? Would you be this upset about him wanting to change genders?”

Elizabeth pouted. “This isn’t the same thing. Sexuality is a fluid thing and many number of chemical and genetic factors along with social constructs facilitate if one sees themselves as male, female, both, neither, or something in between. Apollyon is wanting to change races. It’s like a human trying to change into a goldfish. Completely and utterly stupid. You can’t change species anymore than you can willingly change your physical state… But just to be clear if Apollyon was or is transgender I would fully support them.”

“Good to know.” Sebastian could kind of see her point, but at the same time he knew how desperate Apollyon had been getting. Sure he was always doing his best to be happy, especially around him, but there were always times when he could see something in his facade crack ever so slightly. Those times killed him. “But you know, if Apollyon wants to be human I am going to find a way to help him, because unlike you magic users I won’t give up on someone just because I can’t find anything in old magic books about it.”

She couldn’t help but let out a chuckle when she heard that. “Well, I guess that’s one way to put it. You normal people always go looking for answers no matter the cost. That’s knowledge for you. You’re always after more.” She stood up and dusted herself off. “Well, I should be off now. I have to tend to my son.”

“Okay...”

She headed towards the door but paused for a moment. “Sebastian, listen very carefully to what I am about to say, you are forbidden from coming to the Wizard’s tower to see Apollyon for the next few days. He is in the process of expelling excess Void essence and that can take many forms from bodily fluids to gasses. In both states Void essence will absorb into your skin and poison you.”

“...” Sebastian wasn’t too sure if he believed her or not. Then again he really had no reason to doubt her. She was probably just doing what she thought was best. But she didn’t have to use that language. “Okay… Hey um, is there really no way we could make Apollyon human? What if we, I don’t know, asked Yoba?”

Elizabeth stared at Sebastian is stunned shock before she burst out laughing. “Oh my, that’s a good one. Sebastian, Yoba cares not for the demons. He created angels specifically to murder them. What do you think an all powerful being like that would do to Apollyon? Pat him on the head and give him what he wants? Do you really think they would do that?”

“Yeah well, Yoba’s meant to-”

“Yoba doesn’t care about demons.” Said Elizabeth harshly. “Yoba abandoned them and they will abandon anyone who sees through their bullshit and cast them aside. Yoba is vindictive and spiteful. They love to take away the things you love the most…” A weak chuckle escaped her lips. “But that’s just why we have to abandon putting hope in one deity and do things ourselves. They might have set things in motion, but they really don’t care for us. Not really. There’s too much pain and suffering in the world for that.”

For some reason Sebastian felt like he had hit a nerve with Elizabeth. He just simply nodded and watched her leave his room. He didn’t want to dwell on too much about what she had said but what she had said about Yoba did kind of make sense to him. Yoba wouldn’t want to help Apollyon if he really hated demons that much. Yoba would probably snap his fingers and make Apollyon’s head pop off his shoulders. 

“... Fuck.” He needed to rethink his plan.


	75. Apathy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone hope you all enjoy this chapter. It's kind of depressing but hey Apollyon's still getting over some stuff. He should be fine in a bit... Maybe... Anyway, kudos and comment when you can and enjoy :D

Apollyon felt cold and empty. He had no idea why he felt this way he just did. His mind was still swirling with thoughts and memories of the past. He still didn’t know what was or wasn’t real. He just knew that once in a while he would throw up and feel a little better, but that was about it. If he was honest with himself he didn’t even know if he actually was vomiting, Things were just happening around him.

His stomach growled, he was hungry. He slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, at least he assumes he’s in a sitting position. It’s hard to tell. His mind was too foggy. He opened his mouth to make a noise but instead felt himself vomit again. He was miserable.

Apollyon blinked a few times and tried to get everything into focus. He was… in the Wizard’s tower apparently. He could feel the wooden floor beneath his fingers and could see the stone walls. It was a cruel illusion. He hated it. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want these memories back in his mind. It had been so long since he had these memories and it was causing him nothing but pain. It hurt so much. He just wanted it to end. Please.

“Apollyon, baby bean.”

His mum? Elizabeth, she was here? His mind was just tormenting him now. How evil. Couldn’t his mind just let him be? Let him forget and continue on without the pain and suffering of the past he could never get back? No, obviously not. He was a demon. He needed to be punished and live in constant suffering.

“Apollyon, look at me.” He heard her soft voice and felt her hands on his face. Why was his mind tormenting him so much? She gently wiped something off his face. “Baby bean, focus. I’m right here. Just look at me. Please.”

Apollyon didn’t want to give into his delusions, but he was always weak to his mother’s requests. With much reluctance he tried to focus in on her voice. He could see her clearly now. She was smiling at him with those beautiful green eyes full of love and comfort. He hated it. It just reminded him that he would never really see her again. With that everything else he was trying desperately to forget was forcing its way back into his mind. His sorrow quickly started to turn to rage. He just wanted this to stop. He just wanted reality back.

“It’s okay baby bean.” Cooed Elizabeth. “I’m here. Just focus on me. Focus on me. I can help you. Just please listen to me. You can do that for me, right baby bean?”

Without much of a second thought Apollyon’s jaws snapped open and he lunged at her, sinking his teeth deep into her. As soon as his teeth pierced her flesh it was like the world seem to stand still. This illusion didn’t vanish when he bit down, and it didn’t taste like demon food at all. It tasted like blood. People blood. But if that was true, then that meant this wasn’t an illusion. It was real. He was in Stardew Valley again. He just attacked his mum.

Out of shock he pushed Elizabeth away and let out a horrified screech, loud enough to shake the furniture. Elizabeth hit the wall, clutching her bloody and bleeding shoulder. Despite the pain she was obviously in she still smiled at him. “It’s okay Apollyon. I’m okay.”

“What happened?!” Cried the Wizard. Apollyon saw him, clear as day looking at him with disgust and horror. It made Apollyon feel sick, but he understood. He attacked Elizabeth. He attacked his mum. He couldn’t tell the difference between reality and his delusional mind anymore. He curled up where he was and started to cry.

“It’s okay Ras.” Said Elizabeth calmly. “Apollyon’s still a little jumpy… Just heal me up okay?”

“Yes, of course…” Through his tears Apollyon saw the Wizard crouch by his mother and healed her injury. An injury he had caused. He didn’t want to hurt her. He never wanted to hurt her. She loved him and cared for him when no one else would. She raised him and taught him how to be human. Everything she did she had done out of love for him, and how did he repay her? By biting her.

Once Elizabeth had heald she moved back over to Apollyon and tried to sooth him, much to annoyance of the Wizard. “It’s okay Apollyon. I’m all better now, see?”

“You shouldn’t get that close to him…”

“Hush now Ras. My baby bean needs me.” She pulled him into a hug and gently rubbed his back. “It’s okay Apollyon. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. You’re not that kind of person. I love you.”

The Wizard sighed a little and rubbed his temples. “Well… I guess he’s starting to look better now… His skin isn’t black anymore. It’s grey. He’s dispelled so much Void essence already… I’m going to need to get a new mop at this rate…”

Apollyon whimpered a little. He was still scared of what he did Did time move differently somehow or something? He had no idea. His mind was a mess. What if he had bitten Sebastian instead of his mum? That would have been worse. 

Elizabeth sighed a little and gently kissed Apollyon’s forehead. “It’s okay my dear. You just calm down a little and everything will be okay. You’ll be back to normal in no time.”

Shaking a little, Apollyon nodded. “I-I’m sorry…”

She smiled at him. “It’s okay. Just relax a little and try to calm down baby bean. Everything is going to be okay. You trust me, right?”

Apollyon nodded a little. “O-okay.”

***

It felt like it had been weeks since Sebastian had seen Apollyon. Though in reality it was actually more like three days. He had told Abby and Sam what Elizabeth had told him, but he doubted that they would believe him. He doubted what Elizabeth had said was completely true anyway. She probably just didn’t want him around while Apollyon was recovering.

So he tried to occupy his time with doing work. Unfortunately his usual flood of clients had dropped off suddenly, as it sometimes did. That pretty much meant he had spent most of his time watching videos and reading things on different forums on new updates to Solarian Chronicles. 

It was only be some miracle that he got dragged out of bed and ended up at the festival of ice. Was it really that time already? He stood rugged up by the lake with Sam. He felt damn cold and kind on miserable. He wanted to crawl back into bed or smoke. Yeah, he really missed smoking. Maybe he’d consider investing in a vape? He wasn’t too sure.

As he glanced around, much to his surprise he saw them. Elizabeth and Apollyon were there. Granted Apollyon was completely wrapped up in an unusually large ugly turtleneck sweater, scarf, mittens and beanie. It kind of looked like he got barfed on by some old lady shop. Apart from that he looked really tired.

Seeing him Sam nudged Sebastian hard. “Hey, go talk to him. It’s been a while since he’s been out of the house, right?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and walked over to them, really hoping that Elizabeth wouldn’t chase him away. Then again if Sebastian was back to being allowed to mingle with humans again he probably was normal enough now, right?

But before he could get to them Lewis approached them. “Ah, Apollyon. Good to see you again, and who is this young lady? That wouldn’t be young Elizabeth would it?”

Elizabeth laughed a little and blushed. “Oh mayor Lewis. You don’t have to flatter me. I know you’re still mad about the time I blew up the furnace in the community center.”

“... I almost forgot you did that.” Lewis sighed and shook his head, not happy about that memory. “Anyway, it’s good to see you again. Spending some time with family are you?”

She grinned and happily held onto Apollyon’s arm. “Yep. Just had to come down here to see how my baby bean was going. Poor thing always seems to come down with some horribly bug when Winter rolls around. His throat is all sore so he can’t really talk to much.”

As the two older people began to talk Sebastian used this opportunity to slip over to Apollyon and get his attention. “Hey.”

Apollyon smiled and went to move over to him but Elizabeth’s grip tightened. “Where do you think you’re going? Oh hello Sebastian.”

Sebastian smiled a little at her, though it was kind of nervously. “Hi Elizabeth. Just wanted to say hi and you know, spend some time with Apollyon. Usual boyfriend stuff. It’ll give you time to see everyone else around town.”

Elizabeth didn’t seem too pleased about that, but she let Apollyon go. “Okay, but try not to kiss or anything. Apollyon is still sick and I’d hate for you to get sick.”

Sebastian nodded and quickly lead Apollyon away from everyone else. When he was sure they were out of earshot of anyone he let out a huge sigh. “Fucking hell. It feels like forever since we’ve seen each other. Are you feeling better now? Of course you are. Elizabeth let you walk around… Do you want to talk about what happened?”

Apollyon shrugged a little and pulled his scarf down from around his mouth. He had some black staining around the corners of his lips. “Sebastian… I was in what I assumed was never ending hell for close to a thousand years. I assumed you were dead. I assumed everything I cared about here was dead… I gave up and forgot everything here. Last month if you asked me anything about Pelican Town I would have grabbed you by the legs and pulled you in half like a wishbone. My whole life here was gone, but to you it was only a few hours… Cruel isn’t it?”

Sebastian nervously chewed on the inside of his cheek. “The Wizard said time moves differently between dimensions or something. If I could have gotten to you sooner I would have… I have no idea what you went through and I… Shit, I have no idea what to think about it because I’ll never be able to do it. I don’t live that long.”

A dry chuckle escaped Apollyon’s lips. “Yeah, I know… For the first few months I hated falling asleep because I’d end up dreaming… My dreams didn’t bring me any comfort. I wanted to wake up in Pelican Town with you. Do you know how hard it is to abandon everything? To just give up? Then to have it all flood back at the drop of a hat after centuries? I thought I had gone mad.” Apollyon smiled a little at Sebastian with dead eyes. “I thought I had completely lost my mind and to be honest I don’t know if any of this is real or my last two brain cells farting out what I want before I actually die.”

Sebastian cupped his boyfriend’s cheeks and gave him a stern look. “Hey, look at me, do I look like I’m fake? This is real Apollyon. You’re here with me. You’re back.”

There was absolutely no light in Apollyon’s eyes anymore. Sebastian might as well have been talking to a doll at this rate with the way they were glossed over. “I tried to kill my mum the other day.”

“What?”

“I bit her right in the shoulder. I would have gone for the face but she managed to move enough for me to miss. I almost killed her.” He put his hands over Sebastian’s and closed his eyes. “Seb, I’m a monster-”

“-You’re not.”

“Let me finish… I’m like a disease, a virus. No matter where I go and no matter what I do I will change and adapt to fit that environment. The longer I am there the easier it is, but I’m going to infect and hurt everyone around me.” He sounded so defeated as he spoke. “I understand now, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t be human. I never was and never will be and eventually you’ll start to grow older and I’ll still look like this.”

“You don’t know that Apollyon.” Said Sebastian. He could feel a lump starting to form in his throat. “W-why do you sound like you want to break up with me?”

“What? No I…” Apollyon sighed. “I’m just trying to say when you finally decide to break up with me and find someone else who you can love properly I’m not going to put up a fight.”

Sebastian felt like he had been winded. “What?”

“You deserve everything you want in life… I know you have big plans for your future and don’t want to stay in this town forever but for me, this is it. I can’t leave here anymore. Being in the city makes me sick. I’d rather stay here and farm the land forever. Lord knows with my practically immortal status I could but you… You only have so much time. You need to fall in love, get married, have kids and all the other things couples do… I can’t do that with you. I’m trying to give you a guilt free out.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. When you want to end this we can end it. I can handle being alone. I’ve done it before… And I’m going to be alone when this is all over… That’s just how demons are.”

“... So you’re just giving up on being human? You’re giving up on us?”

Apollyon sighed a little. “Look, it isn’t that I’m giving up on us it’s just that… It’s just that I now realise how naive I have been. Wanting to be human… It’s laughable really. I’m always going to be this… This thing…” He kicked some snow with his shoe. “I should just quit while I’m ahead you know? Cut my losses and stop pretending to be something I’m not. Everyone would be happier if that the case, right?”

Everything that Apollyon was saying, all of it, it was a lot for Sebastian to take in. Honestly he didn’t know what was going through his lover’s mind, but it sounded kind of like depression. “I’m not going to leave you just because you think I should, or that it’ll somehow be better for me if I do.” He wanted to yell at Apollyon for how stupid he was being, thinking that Sebastian was so heartless. 

“I just think you deserve so much better than me.”

Sebastian felt restless. Screw what Elizabeth had said before. He was an adult and had every right to make stupid and dumb decisions. According to other people he already had more than an average amount of Void essence inside him already. What harm could a little more do? He pulled Apollyon close and kissed him. He tasted like salted liquorice mixed with nail varnish. It was kind of gross, but in the end what did that really matter?

He pulled away, kind of happy to see a look of stunned confusion written all over Apollyon’s face. “Don’t you say that. Don’t you fucking say that… I love you and I… I’ve also been looking at ways to try and make you human, if you’re still interested in that kind of thing…”

Apollyon looked like he didn’t know what to say. “You what? I mean… Really? You did? For me?”

“Of course I did you idiot.” Snapped Sebastian. He didn’t mean to snap but after everything that had happened he couldn’t help it. He was frustrated. “I love you and yeah, I don’t know magic, but that just means I can look at it from a different perspective you know? I um… I asked the Junimos to help with this one. If you’re interested.”

“Oh? And what did you come up with?” Apollyon didn’t sound too enthusiastic about it but he at least seemed willing to entertain the idea.

“... Opening a portal to the Yoba plane to make a case directly to Yoba?”

Apollyon’s face went blank as he processed what Sebastian had just said. “So, you want me, a demon, to talk to Yoba, a known killer and slayer of demons… How is that a good idea?”

“Well it’s the only idea I have.” He didn’t need to be lectured about how crazy he sounded. He knew he sounded crazy, but that was all he had right now. It was all he could do. He didn’t know magic and science couldn’t change one species to another outside of the long process of evolution. “I just want to help you… Please let me.”

Apollyon stared at him for a moment before smiling softly. “Okay. I’m sorry I’ve been such a downer. I just have a lot on my mind and it’s hard to think straight. I still have more Void essence in me than I know what to do with,” He looked around the area and hummed a little to himself. “I missed out on this last year. Show me around?”

Sebastian felt some of the tension leave his body. “Sure. Let’s look at the ice sculptures. Mum does them every year.”

“Neat.” Apollyon followed Sebastian to the ice sculptures, quickly tugging up his scarf to cover his mouth again.

As they walked Sebastian couldn’t help but feel Elizabeth’s eyes on them the whole time. It was very creepy and it sent chills up his spine. Elizabeth was quickly becoming one of those scary helicopter parents in his mind. But he could understand. She was very worried about Apollyon and how he was going to react now. Sebastian was worried about this too, but he felt that getting him out of the house was better than keeping him locked away, especially when Apollyon was showing signs of improvement.

He hoped that maybe Apollyon could move back onto his farm. When he did that they could talk a lot more about their relationship and stuff like that. He wanted Apollyon to be happy again. He wanted to talk to him and help him as best he could, even if it was just by listening. He was itching for a cigarette. He was going to order a vape.


	76. Mortality and summoning practice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, so since it's December updates might be a bit slow because well, holidays and stuff. So early season's greetings for all of you out there. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Did Sebastian really care about him? Of course he did. It had been hours to him while it was centuries for Apollyon. Sebastian’s feelings were still strong but Apollyon’s hd wavered slightly. He wasn’t naive. Unlike Sebastian. Sebastian was idealistic where as Apollyon wasn’t. Not anymore. He felt like he was more of a realist now. Everyone and everything he cared about now was going to end at some point. He was going to live on forever and ever and ever and-

“Apollyon?”

Apollyon’s head snapped up to look at his mum. After the festival of ice Elizabeth had decided that it would be in Apollyon’s best interest to live back on his farm. So they were sitting would the kitchen table eating some soup she had made, but he hadn’t touched his at all.

“Is the soup not to your liking baby bean?”

“No, the soup’s fine mum I just… I’ve been thinking about human mortality and how it doesn’t affect me.” He picked up his spoon and started stabbing the lumpy bits in his soup. He had no idea if it was meat of vegetable. “Shouldn’t Colt be here or something? Isn’t he worried about you?”

She smiled a little at him. “I felt Colt’s involvement in this matter wasn’t needed. His solution to the problem would have been a blessed bullet right between your eyes.” They both chuckled at that, though the laugh was hollow at best. “But seriously baby bean if you’re worried about the mortal lifespan of those around you, suicide is an option.”

Now that wasn’t something he expected her to say. “Excuse me?”

“Hey, I wouldn’t have suggested it but you went and tried to summon a demon to become human.” Said Elizabeth calmly. “If you don’t want to live in a world without certain people just ask Colt to make you a blessed bullet so you can end it when you’re done.”

“... I guess…”

“But you’re just worried about Sebastian aren’t you?” She asked in a knowing tone. Apollyon hated it when she did that. “He still loves you just as much as he always has while you… Well you love him just as much as you have always done.”

“No mum. I don’t know if I’m in love with him anymore. I-”

“Baby bean, you are still in love with him. You’re just scared.” She picked up Goblin and gave the hairless cat a few loving pats. “You know what it feels like to live in a world without him. You went through every stage of grief a thousand times over and lost all sense of your humanity to survive in a world without him. You don’t want to go through the trauma again and you think pushing him away will do it. What’s next? You pushing me away?”

“What? No I…” Apollyon sighed and rested his head in his hands. “I hate it when you do that…”

“It’s a mother thing.” She gently rubbed behind Goblin’s ears and made her purr. “But seriously love, I know that kind of loss is painful but don’t let Sebastian go before he is ready to. Love him and cherish him. Do you love your animals any less because they won’t live as long as you? No, you love them and care for them because their time is shorter than yours. To Sebastian his life is long and he wants to spend it with you. He’s anxious when you’re not around. You give him some sense of peace.”

Now she was guilt tripping him. Another thing mum’s seemed to do too well. He did take to heart what she said and he’d by lying if there wasn’t a grain of truth to it. He did love Sebastian and everything about him. He hated everything about being apart from him for so long, and he had grieved. He had grieved for Sebastian longer than anyone else. He was the last one to completely fade from his memory at the time. He didn’t want to live through that pain again.

“I-I just want him to live his life to the fullest. He can’t do that when he’s with me.”

“Why not?” Asked Elizabeth. “Just because he isn’t magic inclined doesn’t mean he can’t be with someone like you. Colt has to really concentrate when he does anything magical. He only started learning magic when he was like… Late twenties? We do just fine. Then there’s the others that date supernatural beings. I know this lovely couple. Met at a Goth bar. Turns out one of them’s a normal human and the other is a werewolf. Been together for decades. They have three cubs together.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like lycanthropy is an actual demon thing.” Muttered Apollyon bitterly. “It’s some of those magic viruses like Vampirism, Undead, or wizard crabs.”

Elizabeth cringed a little. “Wizard crabs are the worst. The little bastards are bigger than normal crabs and cast fire magic out of their pincers. They leave burn marks”

“... Wait, how do you...? Actually never mind. I do not need to know how you know about wizard crabs…” Apollyon looked over at his calendar and sighed. “Sebastian’s birthday is soon… The last time we spent time together on his birthday I was recovering from getting slaughtered…”

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “I know. I was there. Were you planning on doing something?”

“... I found a frozen tear and was going to shine it up… and I um I had another idea, but I can’t do it now. I’ll never be able to do it.” He thought about the mermaid pendant he had stored away in his chicken coop. He had hoped by now he would be free to live as a human and by doing so he could go and propose to Sebastian. In his mind he couldn’t do that until he became human. And since this universe and every other universe has made it clear that won’t happen ever, he was never going to be able to marry Sebastian.

“Well that’s a nice idea… How about you invite him over and make him dinner? Maybe have a little fun together while you’re at it? I assume you didn’t get any when you were in the Void. Can’t imagine what a centuries long dry spell is like.”

Apollyon blushed bright red. “Mum!”

She chuckled a little and put Goblin back onto the floor. “Don’t worry dear, I’ll be spending the night catching up with Morgana, and as long as you wear a condom should be all good. You won’t transfer any Void essence if you do that... Just use water based lube. That oil based stuff is crap and will eat through a condom in a snap.”

Apollyon contemplated drowning himself in his soup. “Please… stop talking…”

Elizabeth shrugged and took Apollyon’s bowl away, dumping it back into the pot. “This is going to be dinner tonight, okay?”

“Yes mum…”

***

Within the community center the Junimo’s all stood around in a giant circle with Purple standing in the middle. They looked extremely nervous about the whole thing. After deciding they would make contact with the Yoba plane they thought it would be best to see if they were actually strong enough to do it. Purple had drawn the short straw and was volunteered to be the first to go.

“... Are you sure about this?” Whined Purple. “Maybe we should send an acorn first? A pine cone?”

“Quit being such a baby.” Said Yellow. “You lost. You do it.”

Orange nodded. “Better you than us.

“My stick broke! It broke!” Whined Purple.

Blue sighed and rolled their eyes. “Let’s just get this over with already. No point putting it off.”

The other Junimo’s agreed and started to hum softly as they waved their little arms up in the air. As they did the ground slowly started to glow with a soft yellow light. Once the light reached Purple the Junimos started to spin and dance in an anticlockwise direction while chanting; “Patoong fetang nigrah shigarog. Shigarog, shigarog Yoba patoong. Yongapha! Yongapha! Fetang! Yoba! Yoba! Yoba! Patoong!”

Suddenly there was an explosion of light and Purple screeched. Once the light dissipated the Junimos were surprised to see that Purple was gone. “Did we do it?” Asked Red. Suddenly Purple fell back into the middle of the circle covered in soot and some wood splinters. Looking up they discovered a second hole in the roof. “... Never mind. We messed up.”

“Let’s try again!” Said Brown. “I think I heard someone mispronounce nigrah as like you know, the bad word. Let’s try again!”

“NO!” Screeched Purple. “I REFUSE! NO!” They got up, dusted themselves off, and marched away muttering curses under their breath.

“Purple!” Red ran after Purple to try and comfort them. At that the rest of the Junimos decided it was time to give up for the day.

Green walked over to White and sighed. “I thought that would work. Like we could open up a little rift to the Yoba plane and not, you know, blow people up by accident…”

White shrugged. “These things happen. We should probably try again in Spring. You know, season of renewal and what not. We’ll be strong and able to draw in enough power to do something. Winter is kind of bad for this… I hope Purple is okay…”

“They’ll be fine. They just need to shake it off.” Green sat down and sighed. “I hope the farmer is doing okay. Maybe once they feel better they’ll be able to finish the community center. What happens then? What happens to us?”

White hummed a little in thought. “I guess when everything is done we won’t be needed here anymore. We’ll just go back to the Yoba plane and wait until Yoba needs us back here again. That’s just how it is.”

Green nodded a little. “I see… Well I’m gonna go and make sure everyone can pronounced the words correctly.” They waddled off and started giving their fellow Junimos elocution lessons. Some agreed to it but others told Green to bugger off.

***

Abigail and Sam jumped a little when they saw something fly out of the roof of the community center as they passed it. They had no idea what was going on or if they should care. After finding out that Junimos lived in there anything was possible.

Abby sighed a little and rubbed her hands together. “This weather sucks man… What do you wanna do for Seb’s birthday this year?”

“Pizza and movies?” Suggested Sam. “That’s what we usually do.”

“Eh, sounds dumb… We can do better than that.” Abby stuffed her hands into her pockets as they continued to walk up the mountain. “Thank Seb will want to do stuff with Apollyon?”

Sam shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe? They talked to each other a lot during the ice festival yesterday. I hope they end up okay…”

“Considering all the crazy bullshit that those two have gone through I’m pretty sure their relationship is pretty rock solid at this point.”

“I guess… I still worry about them and you should to.” Said Sam. “It must have been a huge blow to Apollyon to be dragged back into the Void and I have no idea what Sebastian’s going through… He didn’t really talk about what he and Apollyon talked about after everything was said and done.”

Abby shrugged. “No idea… I hope things are okay between them. I’m gonna kick Apollyon’s ass from here to the other side of Zuzu city if he makes Sebastian cry.”

“When was the last time you’ve ever seen Seb cry?”

“High school.” Muttered Abby. “Some asshole was bullying him about something dumb. So I kicked their ass behind the gym.”

Sam frowned a little. “... Was that the guy that started the rumour that he slept with you because you kicked him in the dick because he was bullying Seb?”

Abby smirked. “Yep. Remember the rumour I spread in return? He had a small dick, couldn’t keep it up for more than ten seconds and I couldn’t even tell he put it in. Pretty sure all the girls were making fun of him for having a baby dick for the rest of the year.”

“Power move.”

“Damn right.” As they approached the house Abby noticed a familiar black shape standing by the lake. The two of them walked over. “Sup emo kid?”

Sebastian looked over at them and nodded. “Hey.”

Sam grinned. “Good to see you out and about on this cold Winter’s day. How did things go with you and Apollyon the other day?”

He shrugged and rubbed his thumb over his bottom lip. “Okay I think… I can still taste salty liquorice…”

Abby frowned. “What?”

“Um, Apollyon’s still got too much Void essence in him.” Said Sebastian. “It apparently tastes like salty liquorice… Kind of gross but the taste is kind of growing on me…”

“... Weird, anyway, let’s stop pretending we have any idea we know what we’re talking about and talk about your birthday.” Said Abby with a grin. “What do you want to do? Go to Zuzu for the day? Movie and pizza night? Dinner at the saloon?”

Sebastian thought about it for a bit before shaking his head. “I don’t know… I was kind of hoping Apollyon would want to do something with me but…”

Abby’s eyes narrowed. “What did he do?”

“Nothing he just… He has a lot on his mind right now.” Said Sebastian calmly. “I think he’s going through some mortality crisis in his head. He’s a demon and as far as I can tell he can live forever and I… Human mortality and all that shit.”

Sam nodded a little. “Is he worried he’s going to outlive you?” 

“Yeah…”

“Well that is a legit concern.” Said Sam. “I’d be worried about anyone I’d end up with if I couldn’t die or they couldn’t die… They never talk about that stuff in romance novels and TV shows.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s all that stupid bullshit about finding a way to also become immortal so you can both be young, dumb and sexy forever. It would fucking suck to live forever. All your friends and family die, and let’s not even talk about the shit the government would give you. Better to be mortal and die...” She frowned a little and gave Sebastian a suspicious look. “If Apollyon can’t become mortal would you consider becoming immortal yourself?”

Sam laughed a little and playfully slapped Sebastian on the back. “Come on Abs. No way Seb would be thinking about that kind of stuff.”

“... Yeah… Totally...”

Sam blinked a little. “Dude… Really?”

“Well if he can’t be human then there has to be a way for a human to become a demon, right?”

Abby rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you kill Apollyon repeatedly when you drank Void essence or something? You are not a very good at the whole demon thing. Besides, why do you want to leave us?”

Sebastian sighed a little and ran his fingers through his hair. “I know it’s stupid and dumb. I just… It was just a dumb idea. I’m not good with coming up with ideas under pressure about stuff I don’t know much about.”

Abby sighed. “You are hopeless.”

“Shut up…”


	77. Saloon dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Apollyon spent the better half of Sebastian’s birthday hiding in the quarry. It wasn’t like he was trying to hide from him or anything. He just… He needed time to think in a quiet place away from everyone. No one came to the quarry so he could afford to be here for a few hours and be completely alone.

As he split open his third rock in a row he started to wonder if he had been too blunt with Sebastian. He did go and tell him that they shouldn’t be together because of their now extreme age difference, but he did it in kind of a douchey way. He just wanted to be realistic. There was no point in anything anymore. Not really, no.

In fact, why did he even care that much about pretending to be human anymore anyway? Why bother hiding himself? It was just a self imposed rule. Screw it. Next time he got severely injured he wouldn’t bother covering up or hiding away. He’d just walk into town with like some crazy third arm sticking out of his back or some crazy teeth extending from his jaw line down his neck. Sure that might turn a few heads but what did he care?

If he told people the truth they would start to avoid him. He could just imagine Robin and Demetrius trying to keep Sebastian away from him once they found out the truth. Hell, he would commission Robin to create a wall to keep everyone out. He had water and food. He would live there for centuries alone and everyone would move on. They could go on with their lives and just forget about the twisted monster behind the wall.

As he thought this over he noticed the sun was starting to set. He probably should head over to see Sebastian. Despite his own apathy he needed to be there for Sebastian. Despite what he himself had been through Sebastian hadn’t changed how he felt at all about him. He needed to make a proper effort.

He used some clean snow to clean the dirt from his hands and face before he made his way over to Sebastian’s house. He walked inside and was immediately greeted by Robin.

“Hey there Apollyon. I was just about to close up. Do you need anything?”

“Nah, not today.” Said Apollyon quietly. “It’s Seb’s birthday today and well you know…”

She chuckled a little and nodded. “Of course, of course. Sebby is in his room.”

Apollyon smiled a little and headed down. He lightly knocked on the door and let himself in. Sebastian was surprisingly not at his computer. He was on his bed reading. He looked up at Apollyon and smiled a little. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

“... It’s your birthday?” He walked over to his boyfriend. “I was well informed that I should spend time with my boyfriend on his birthday… Did you not want me here?”

Sebastian quickly sat up and grabbed onto his arm. He had a concerned look on his face. “H-hey. I do want you here I just… With the way you’ve been acting since you came back I… I assumed you wouldn’t really want to be here. You needed more time to think things over and stuff…”

A small smile made its way onto Apollyon’s face. Despite it all, Sebastian was too considerate of him. “Don’t say dumb stuff. Of course I want to spend time with you. I want to make you happy. Let me make you happy, okay?” He took a small frozen tear out of his pocket and handed it to him. “Here, I didn’t have much time to get you something fancy and to be honest I’m not sure if I even did have something planned for you before um… you know…”

In the back of his mind all he could think about was the mermaid pendant he had hidden in the chicken coop. It’ll never be used. Just a reminder of what will never be. Silent promises that will never be spoken of again. It made him want to cry, but he actually felt too dead inside to cry. It was weird.

Sebastian happily took the gem and turned it over in his hand. “Thanks. Honestly I was just happy that you’re here and you know, not there.”

Apollyon nodded a little and looked at the book Sebastian was reading. It was a monster manuel. “What’s that?”

“Oh, it’s a sixth edition copy of the monster manual for Solarian Chronicles. My um, my mum got it for me.” He blushed a little. “I kind of spent most of the day reading it… Didn’t realise it was getting so late.”

“I get it.” Apollyon leaned over and kissed Sebastian’s cheek. “Let’s go to the Saloon. I’ll buy you dinner. Anything you want. If we eat early we can spend the rest of the night at my place and I can give you another present.”

Sebastian blushed a little. “I um… isn’t your mum staying at your place?”

“Well yeah, but she said she would stay at the Wizard’s place tonight so we could do whatever we want without interruptions… Do you want to head to the Saloon now? It’s a little early but you know, it might be good to eat early?” 

Sebastian seemed to agree and put the frozen tear on his bookshelf right next to the quartz, frog shaped obsidian and frozen tear from least year. He was going to have to think of something better to get him for Winter Star this year.

The two of them made their way down the mountain in relative silence together. Usually they would both be fine with the quiet, but for some reason Sebastian seemed like he needed to fill the void with chatter for some reason. He had no idea why though.

“So um… you missed out on the Night markets last year.”

“Night markets?”

“Yeah. Every year a few boats dock into port, if you can even call it that, and like they sell things.” He fidgeted with his hoodie strings a little. “They usually stay for about three days. Mum usually drags me down to it on like the second day and um… Maybe you’d like to come down?”

“... You asking me out on a date?”

“Maybe… But you know, I understand if you’re not interested in it. Your head’s still not all there at the moment right? Still trying to sort things out in your own head about stuff?”

Apollyon smiled and kissed his cheek. “Sure. I’d love to go with you. It sounds interesting.”

When they got to the Saloon they took up a booth near the fireplace. It felt nice to be here. He felt a small spark of happiness in his chest. It reminded him a little of when he first came to Pelican Town. Just when he had quit Joja he felt dead inside, like he had no purpose or feelings at all. Unless he counted depression and anxiety as emotions. It almost made him laugh. It was like he had been completely reset.

Sebastian reached across the table and lightly brushed his fingers across his hand. “Hey, are you okay? You still seem out of it.”

Apollyon shrugged. “I guess I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you care about me… Just the time difference really. I’ll get over it soon.”

“It’ll be okay.”

Suddenly Emily walked over, grinning at them. “Hey there you two. What can I get you? Gus has a special on crab cakes tonight if you’re interested. But we also have a seafood pizza special. What are you guys interested in getting?”

“Can I get a loaded schnitzel?” Asked Apollyon. “Meat lovers one with lots of cheese.”

Emily nodded and quickly jotted it down on her notepad. “Chips and salad or steamed veggies and mash?”

“Chips and salad.”

“Awesome.” She scribbled down some more. “And for you Sebastian?”

“Medium rare steak with chips and salad.” Said Sebastian quietly.

She nodded and wrote that down. “Alright, so that’s one loaded meat lovers schnitzel with extra cheese and a medium rare steak both with chips and salad. Any drinks? Your first drink’s free since it’s your birthday Seb.”

“Just a house cider.” He said quietly.

“Make that two.”

Emily nodded and happily went back to the bar to give their order to Gus. After that everything fell into a slightly awkward silence, but Apollyon could understand why. He wasn’t acting the way Sebastian wanted him to. He was quiet, and more reserved. But not the kind of quiet one usually saw with someone who looked his age. He figured he probably looked a lot more like Kent these days. That was kind of worrying. 

Then again with the way his mind was working he probably would have been a good fit for war. Though he had personally always tried to avoid it when he could since he wasn’t human. He didn’t want to give any side the advantage of coming face to face with a thing that could and would pull their guts out like streamers when they pissed him off.

Killing humans wouldn’t be that different from killing demons. If anything it would be easier. Punching a hole through a human’s chest would kill they pretty much instantly, but not a demon. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Not much of a challenge, but he knew he would eventually get a reputation if he did so. He’d probably end up being called the demon of the battlefield or the Ferngill demon. Something like that would be fitting of him. After all, that was what he was. A demon.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Hmm?”

“You look like you’re drifting off…”

Apollyon smiled a little at Sebastian. “It’s okay. Please don’t worry. I’ve found myself thinking a lot about what if scenarios lately… Did you know before I decided to come here someone suggested that I join the army?”

Sebastian seemed surprised by that. “Really?”

“Yeah. They suggested I become a translator since I can understand practically any language after being exposed to it enough.” He laughed a little. “I was just wondering what it would be like if I were to say… join the front line. I probably could have ended the way months ago.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Who knows? Isn’t it kind of pointless to think about that kind of stuff though? Getting caught up in all that stuff will just mess with your head and you’ll never be able to stop thinking about it. No point.”

“When did you get so wise?”

“One of us had to.”

***

Okay things were a little awkward but Sebastian was just happy that Apollyon was out with him tonight. He was thankful that he had made the effort to come out here tonight. Maybe it meant he was getting better and back to his old self? Maybe. He wasn’t too sure. Every now and then Apollyon would get a distant look in his eyes like he was somewhere else. That depressed him a little and made him feel kind of anxious.

Which was strange. He hadn’t felt anxious around Apollyon before. Worried, yes, but never anxious like he was now. He kind of felt like he was walking on eggshells but wasn’t fully sure why. He wasn’t even like when Apollyon had told him the truth about being a demon. 

They ate dinner in silence and to be honest, Sebastian kind of liked that. He didn’t like having a lot of conversations during dinner. Once they finished eating Apollyon paid and the two of them walked back to the farm. They walked close together as the snow lightly fell on them. It was kind of pretty.

When they got to Apollyon’s place they dusted off the snow and they were greeted by Goblin. Today she was wearing a jumper with an ugly winter star tree on it. She did not look amused at all. “Meow.”

Apollyon chuckled a little and gave her a few pats. “Hey there beautiful. Don’t you look cute in that butt ugly sweater.”

“Did you order it for her?”

“My mum made it.” He smiled a little at Sebastian and gestured to the bedroom. “If you want to change into something less damp you can go ahead and take something.”

Sebastian laughed a little. “What? Not going to invite me into your room for sex?”

“Well if you wanted to I wouldn’t mind.” Apollyon smiled and brushed some hair out of Sebastian’s face. “It’s your birthday. I want to make you feel good however you want me to.”

A dark blush quickly spread across his face. One one hand he really loved the thought of having some amazing sex with Apollyon, but on the other hand he really didn’t like the idea of doing it with Apollyon right now. He really didn’t seem to be in the right mental state for this at the moment.

Reluctantly he put his hand on Apollyon’s chest and lightly pushed him away. “Not tonight…”

“Hmm? Why not?”

“Because you’re not into it and well… I’d rather have a meaningful connection with someone then just sex. You feel me?”

Apollyon looked surprised to hear that but he nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I understand… I’m sorry I haven’t been… I have a lot of stuff on my mind that I’m trying to sort out. I want to be a good boyfriend for you as long as you need me.”

Sebastian smiled a little and kissed him. “I’m always going to need you… I just hope you need me too.”

Once again Apollyon looked surprised. Apparently Sebastian was throwing out all kinds of shocking statements tonight. After the initial shock Apollyon’s expression softened a little and he hugged his lover. “I-I need you Sebastian. You were the only thing that kept me sane for so long and but I just…”

“Have a lot on your mind right now?”

“Yeah.” He looked over at the TV. “So um, you want to watch a movie and make out for a bit?”

“Sounds like fun to me.”


	78. Night markets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted them to have a nice date together and have a nice time. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The snow drifted softly onto the beach. It brought a sense of calm to Apollyon as he watched it fall. He wondered briefly if he was starting to feel human again or if things were just happening that were out of his control again. As a demon he could and would adapt quickly to whatever environment he was put in. Demons wouldn’t live as long as they did if they couldn’t adapt fast.

Tonight was the first day of the night markets. He had come early to watch everything get set up. As he did his mother who stood by him and couldn’t help but inquire about his life right now. “Are you feeling more human these days baby bean?”

Apollyon shrugged and dusted some snow off his shoulder. “I don’t know. I guess. I’m not eating anyone or anything so I guess that’s a good start.”

She laughed a little. “That’s a good start… But you know I worry about you. You’ve become cold.”

“Is that really my fault?”

“No. After what you went through I wouldn’t blame you if you were cold for a long time.” She sighed slowly watching her breath drift off as a fog in the wind. “But you adapt quickly. You’ll be fine. You adapted to human life fairly quickly after a few weeks.”

Apollyon chuckled a little. “Yeah. I guess I did… You know, I have no idea how I’m going to keep living with Sebastian. I’m happy to be with him now but… Just look at me mum, I haven’t aged a day in my human form. I still look just as I did before that incident… Eventually Sebastian is going to grow old and I’ll stay young looking forever.”

“I feel like we’ve talked about this before…” Muttered Elizabeth. She took a small pendant out of her pocket and held it up for him to see. “Here. This is your cyanide pill. Inside there’s a needle filled with highly concentrated Solar essence. It’s so potent it could kill a thousand demons. The needle is spring loaded so just be careful with it dear.”

He nodded and carefully held the pendant at arms length. It was small and long like a dagger with some kind of plant engraved into it. Symbolic. “I don’t think mothers should be supplying their children with poison.”

“Well we’re a different kind of family.” She looked over her shoulder back at the town and sighed. “Well, if you need me tonight I’ll be at the saloon. Enjoy your date with Sebastian.”

“Yes mum.” He watched her walk away for a bit before he wandered down onto the docks. He made his way over to some merchant who looked like he could possibly be from some middle eastern country. He had some kind of old looking coffee machine next to him.

The man smiled at him and started pouring a cup. “Hello friend. Might I interest you in a fresh cup of happiness? Free of charge of course.”

Apollyon took the cup and sipped it. “... Nice. You can really taste the roasted beans.”

The man chuckled a little. “Be sure to check out the mermaid show when you get the chance. It’s quite entertaining.”

“Thanks. I think I will.” Apollyon waved to them and wandered over to Willy’s shop to wait for Sebastian to show up. It didn’t take long before his lover to show up. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Sebastian quickly looked around to see if anyone was looking at them before he quickly pulled him into a quick kiss. “Missed you.”

“Really? We live within walking distance of each other.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I know.” Apollyon squeezed his hand and looked around the boats. “So um… What do you want to look at first?”

He shrugged. “Mermaid show?”

“Lead the way.” He followed Sebastian along a precariously placed wooden plank to a blue boat with what looked like a green haired mermaid laying down on a pot. They walked inside and they were confronted with a stage with five clam shells placed on the front. Everything was dark and it kind of made Apollyon if Mermaid show was a euphemism of something.

Suddenly some music started playing and the curtains drew back to reveal a woman with long flowing blue hair sitting in a giant clam shell. The green scales of her fish tail glimmered in the stage lights. They stage was made up to look like a beach, but he had to question the reasoning behind having two fairy dolls dangling on either side of her. 

The mermaid started to sing along with the music in an almost operatic tone. She didn’t sing any words, she just sang notes. It was beautiful to hear such angelic notes. It gave him a strange sense of ease to listen to her. It made him feel calm and relaxed. Soon it was all over. The music stopped and she blew a kiss out to them as the curtains drew closed.

Apollyon looked over at Sebastian and smiled a little. “That was pretty cool. I can see why you recommend it.”

“Well everything else is pretty much just shops. Apart from submarine.” Noticing Apollyon’s curious stare he quickly continued. “There’s this guy over the other side that does these deep sea tour things. He takes you way down deep into the ocean. A few times when I was younger my family would go on it and see all the weird looking fish down there. Haven’t done that in a few years”

Apollyon nodded and headed towards the door. “Let’s go there next then. It should be fun. I haven’t been in a submarine before.”

The two of them headed to the submarine and paid the captain. With a nod and the tip of his hat he happily took the duo into the submarine and down to the depths. Apollyon was kind of overwhelmed by how different everything looked so deep below the surface. Eventually they settled at some unknown depth and Apollyon strained his eyes to see what was out there.

Suddenly something darted across his view and made him jump. “Oh!”

Sebastian chuckled a little. “Did you just get scared by a midnight squid?”

“... Hush your face.”

His boyfriend rolled his eyes and started pointing out different fish. “Look there, those are sea cucumbers and I think that one’s a super cucumber… There’s another midnight squid. That creepy looking thing with all the eyes? Spook fish. Oh, that’s an octopus. That ugly thing’s a blobfish.”

Apollyon was surprised but delighted to see that Sebastian knew so much about deep sea fish. “Wow. Didn’t pick you for a fish expert.”

“I’m not. Demetrius was the one that usually pointed this stuff out.”

“Ah.” He wasn’t so sure if this was going to be a sore spot for Sebastian or not. “It’s still really cool though. I like that kind of trivia stuff.”

“Huh, okay.” 

***

Sebastian continued to point out the fish and stun Apollyon with his knowledge of deep sea fish. It was nice to see Apollyon’s eyes light up after days of him looking blank and kind of empty for the past few days. He was quickly starting to look like his old self again. At some point they started holding hands and leaning against each other. It made him feel good to be like this again.

Soon he stopped talking all together and they fell into a comfortable silence. There was something almost romantic to stand out watching the the bioluminescent fish swim by as the soft music played. As far as Sebastian thought, he thought that this had been a good date. 

He laced his fingers with Apollyon’s and slowly rubbed his thumb over his lover’s knuckles. Sebastian hoped that things were going to go back to normal now. Maybe by next year Apollyon would be back to smiling and meaning it. If that was the case then he would gladly give himself over to the pleasures Apollyon had to offer.

That kind of perverted thought made him blush a little. He was still wondering if he made the right choice on his birthday by denying Apollyon. Sure it would have been fun, but he could see in Apollyon’s eyes that he wasn’t into it. He didn’t like the idea of having that kind of sex with someone. It was one thing for two strangers having sex in a one night stand but in those cases the two individuals were more than likely consenting. In his case however… Sebastian just always thought that sex was special.

Suddenly the captain cleared his throat. “Alright boys. Time to head back to the surface.”

Sebastian jumped a little. He had completely forgot about the captain. “O-okay.” He watched the sea slowly change into a brighter blue. They saw a few different kinds of fish like albacore and squid. It was almost disappointing to see the night sky again. There was just a pleasant sense of calm down there. Apollyon seemed to feel that too.

“That was really nice.” Said Apollyon. “Thanks for pointing out those fish to me.

“No problem.” He squeezed Apollyon’s hand and smiled at him a little. “So you like fish?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty neat, but I liked spending time with you somewhere quiet. Quiet places make me happy.”

Sebastian nodded in agreement. That he and Apollyon could both agree on. Being alone in a quiet place was nice. He didn’t have to worry about doing something stupid and people staring at him or them. He didn’t like the idea of people looking at him like he was a freak. He got that enough in high school.

“Same.” Sebastian shoved his hands into his pockets and took out a vape.

Apollyon looked mildly confused. “Thought you were quitting?”

“I’m trying to, but you know old habits die hard and shit. I just feel a little more comfortable using one of these rather than chewing gum and patches. This just came in the other day along with all my Winter Star shopping.”

“... Yeah, I should get on that. Doubt you’ll want another rock.”

Sebastian shrugged. “You do what you think is best. I’m sure I’ll like what you get me no matter what… What kind of gifts do demons give each other, if any at all?”

Apollyon thought for a moment. “Well, any gifts given are more for mating reasons rather than just giving for the sake of giving… And even then it’s usually stuff like meat and bones and shiny things… Hee, humans and demons both seem to like shiny things huh?”

“Yeah, I guess.” That was kind of a funny thought. Things tended to be drawn to strange shiny things.

“Speaking of shiny things, come with me.” Apollyon walked with him over to a boat right by a man selling paintings. The merchant there was shrouded in shadows but their beady red eyes were burning brightly. Sebastian had been to this boat a few times, but in all honesty this kind of strange shop was more of an Abby thing.

“Hello.” They squeaked. “What’s your pleasure?”

Apollyon looked behind them for a moment before he pointed at something. “That one thanks.”

The merchant nodded and quickly grabbed the artifact, placing it on the counter, but they hand a firm grip on it. “Five hundred gold. No more no less.”

Apollyon quickly paid them and took the artifact from them and handed it to Sebastian. “Here… I want you to have this.”

Sebastian took it and was surprised to see it was a small statue of a frog. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”

“But I wanted to.”

The rest of the evening the two of them took turns holding the statue and checking out the other boats. When they started to get tired they walked back up to Sebastian’s home, hand in hand. Things were getting better. This was a good date. Apollyon was feeling better and going back to normal now.

About halfway up the mountain road Sebastian nervously chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Hey um… Apollyon? Remember that idea I had about summoning Yoba or something to help you become human? Are you um… Are you on board with that?”

“Well I don’t see an actual way that would work...” He sighed a little. “I guess if there is some way I would give it a try… I don’t want to out live you or anyone that I know now. I just want to be with you. Life is miserable without you or anyone else.”

Sebastian nodded a little and squeezed Apollyon’s hand. “Hey um… So if I went and found a way to maybe help you would you be open to it?”

Apollyon thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, I’d be willing to give it a go. The other option I have isn’t very fun…”

“Other option?”

“Suicide.”

“... Oh.”

“Living forever sucks and it’s lonely…” He smiled sadly. “I don’t want to be lonely anymore.”

They stood in front of the door to Sebastian’s house and stared longingly at each other. There wasn’t much that needed to be said between them. They just clicked and seemed to follow their instincts or at least Apollyon seemed to. He kind of knew how to read the mood and know what Sebastian wanted.

He gently pulled Sebastian close and kissed him. It quickly turned into a more passionate kiss as Sebastian stepped back so he was leaning against the door while keeping Apollyon pressed up against his body. It felt good having Apollyon’s hands running over his body. Sure he wasn’t sure about having sex with Apollyon yet, but he did like the idea of making out with him and getting touched. It was good.

Suddenly the outside lights started to quickly flick on and off making the two lovers pull back from each other. Apollyon laughed at this while Sebastian went bright red. “Looks like Robin or Demetrius is telling us to keep it in our pants.”

Sebastian nodded a little. “Y-yeah… Guess we have to wait till your mum has left before we can actually do anything huh?”

“If that’s what you want then that’s what we’ll do.” Said Apollyon. He brushed some of Sebastian’s hair out of his face and smiled kindly at him. “She should leave in a few more days. Colt should be starting to get antsy right about now and will want to see her soon… You know, despite him being a cunt to me he’s always been good to her. I’m happy for them.”

“Well that’s good, and I- Okay seriously who is flickering those damn lights?” Snapped Sebastian as he looked up at them. It was ridiculously annoying.

“Yeah. Well let’s call it a night.” He quickly kissed Sebastian’s cheek and wandered back home.

Blushing, Sebastian quickly slipped inside only to find his mum wrapped up in her fluffy aqua dressing gown. She didn’t look too impressed and honestly neither was he. “What was that for? I’m not a teenager anymore.”

“I know Sebby,” said Robin calmly. “But you two were kind of banging up against the door and it woke me up. You’re lucky Demetrius and Maru are deep sleepers.”

Sebastian had no idea if he could get any redder and quickly slinked down to his room while muttering as many apologies as he could. Getting called out by a parent for something like that was just too embarrassing.


	79. End of year 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone this chapter is slightly shorter than previous ones but still good. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The rest of the year went by without much notice. Apollyon continued to show improvement, Elizabeth went back home, and Sebastian slowly started to move more of his belongings into the farm house. It was good. Things were going well. However Apollyon did question how he was so easily able to shake his own mental torment in a matter of hours. He chalked that up to being a demon and not human.

Either way he was quickly getting back into the swing of things. He fed his animals, fixed fences, and went fishing. It was just a normal day. Just like how everything was before. Well the only difference was Sebastian was at his place more often. Which he liked a lot.

It was always nice to wake up next to Sebastian and cuddle up to him for a few extra minutes before he had to do his chores. It was nice that he didn’t smell like smoke and ash anymore. It made him smile a little. He loved these quiet moments, though they still filled his heart with a small amount of dread. He still felt guilty and unsettled about his current life situation.

He was pretty sure that his life wasn’t going to change any time soon he wanted to spend as much time as he could with Sebastian. Even if he couldn’t find a way to be human he’d try to spend the rest of Sebastian’s time on this planet with him. Sebastian had been talking about actually talking to Yoba, and although that seemed insane he’d give it a go.

As he went over these thoughts in his mind Winter Star was suddenly upon him. This year he was giving a gift to Emily. She loved the Aquamarine he gave her. This year his secret gift giver was Evelyn. She gave him a dozen soft bake cookies. They were amazing and made Apollyon want to get her a gift. She was getting the first tulips next Spring.

He ended up eating with Sebastian’s family again. Robin had practically made him part of the family now and fussed over him not eating enough. She had tried to give him a big slice of pumpkin pie, but Apollyon slipped it onto Sebastian’s plate. Sweet or savory he still hated pumpkin.

A day later he went into town to talk to Pierre about seeds and things he would need in Spring. While he was there he ran into Jodi and Caroline. It was nice to talk to the ladies but quickly became less so when they started dropping not to subtle hints that Spring was a good time for marriage. If anything Apollyon was going to propose in the fall. There was a better chance he could lure Sebastian outside for a quiet, no pressure proposal. Not that it would ever happen.

***

On the last day of the year Apollyon was lying face down on his bed. His mind was slightly foggy from all the work he had been doing. In a few hours it would be his third year in Stardew Valley. For a few lingering moments he wondered a little about that old letter he found on his grandfather’s shrine. Would he really come back? Hopefully not.

He sighed and buried his face into his pillow. He didn’t want to fight zombie grandpa. That would just be mean. Maybe if he was lucky he would suffocate himself now and miss the whole thing? That would be nice.

The mattress dipped next to him and he felt a hand lightly touch his shoulder. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just thinking about stuff… Two years. Been here for two years…”

Sebastian nodded a little. “Yeah, hell of a long time huh?”

“Yep…” With a groan he pulled himself up into a sitting position and smiled at his lover. “I know you’re not much of a wine drinker, but I have a good bottle of peach wine that I think you might like. Let’s end this year with a bang.”

Sebastian blushed a little and chuckled. “Heh, bang.”

Apollyon rolled his eyes and poked his face. “Not an innuendo there buddy. Also if you get drunk we are not going to fuck. I don’t fuck people who are drunk or are high as balls.”

“Oh yeah, you don’t get drunk do you? Fucking demon perk.”

Apollyon shrugged. “Not my fault you’re a lightweight.”

“I’m not Sam.”

“True.” Apollyon got up and walked out to the kitchen. “So you want some wine? If not I’ll drink it all myself.”

“It’s nine in the morning!”

Apollyon shrugged as he searched for a corkscrew. “So call me an alcoholic if you must. My liver won’t die from it.” He found the corkscrew and started to open the bottle. “Have a little taste of it first at least.”

Sebastian sighed a little and walked over to him and tried a little of the wine. “Hmm… I think my mum would like this. She likes peaches.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He poured himself a glass and watched Goblin warming herself by the fire. “... Anything else you want to do today? Last day of the year and all that. Gonna get hot tomorrow.”

The raven haired man sighed and sat on the couch. “There isn’t too much to do today… Like we could go to Zuzu city or something… Have you gone and finished planning stuff for tomorrow?”

“Yep. It wasn’t that hard.” He sat by Sebastian and playfully ran his fingers through his hair. “Almost two human years doing this now. I’d like to think I know what I’m doing. By the way why the hell did I find your boxers in the kitchen yesterday morning?”

Sebastian frowned for a moment and looked over at Goblin accusingly. “Your cat hates me and keeps moving my stuff.”

“Is she asserting her dominance?”

“Yep. Why did you have to get a cat that hates everyone?”

“She likes me, and Marnie gave her to me.” He looked down at Goblin, smiling a little when he saw her stretch out, wiggle her toe beans, and then curl back up into a ball that made her look like an uncooked plucked chicken. It was remarkable that despite all the crazy things that had happened around her she was always calm and collected. Animals were amazing.

“Still… She hates me.”

Apollyon shrugged. “Well next time we get a pet you can choose what it is.”

“... You want to get a pet with me?”

“It’s a lot easier and cheaper than adopting a kid.”

Sebastian nodded a little. “I guess…”

***

Suddenly talking about adopting animals and adopting kids, maybe just maybe Apollyon was falling back into a human way of life and wanted to take the next step? That’s kind of what Sebastian hoped anyway. It meant Apollyon was probably feeling better and well, Sebastian would have been lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about possible marriage.

He didn’t care if Apollyon was a demon or a human. He just wanted to be with him. For a little while he had been thinking about proposing to Apollyon, but he had a feeling that Apollyon wouldn’t get the whole mermaid pendant thing they had in Pelican town. He found out that people in Zuzu city did it with a ring but those were way too expensive for him. He’s even looked at how demons get married on a whim. He found a stupid amount of lesbian porn when he did that.

Point was, he was thinking about taking the next step in their relationship. He just hoped that Apollyon felt the same way. Then again they didn’t have to get married straight away and have kids, but it was a nice thought. Apollyon seemed like the kind of a guy that would get along well with kids.

He could see it now… He would be a stay at home kind of dad still doing programming while Apollyon worked the fields. He’d teach their child to code and show them how to play computer games while Apollyon would show them how to farm the land and look after animals. That would be nice. Maybe they could have two kids? A boy and a girl. Hopefully they would get along like Sam and Vincent and not like him and Maru. Sure he loved his little sister, but they didn’t really get along as well as they probably should.

By now he was blushing at his sentimentality. It was nice to think about how their lives were going to go in a few years. He imagined what Apollyon might look like in a few more years with slightly more defined muscles and maybe a few streaks of silver running through his hair. He’d look hot.

Suddenly Goblin jumped up onto his lap and tried to dig her nails into his hoodie. “Meow!”

“... What the fuck is this testical doing?”

“Meow!”

Apollyon shrugged. “I think she’s trying to make herself comfy? Congratulations. You’ve gone from being hated to being a new thing for her to lie on.”

“... Is that a good thing?”

“Better than being a scratching post.”

Goblin stared at Sebastian for a moment before quickly jumping onto Apollyon’s lap and curling up. She purred softly as he started to pat her. When she wasn’t glaring at him, Sebastian thought she was kind of cute. Kind of. Maybe. No, she was still a weird looking ball sack pretending to be a cat.

“Yeah… So TV?”

Apollyon nodded and grabbed the remote. “Sure. Trash TV all day, then the Saloon for dinner?”

“And if you play nicely we can come back home for dessert.” He said that slightly more flirtatiously than he meant to, but fuck it. It had been a while, Apollyon was pretty much back to normal, and he was getting pretty horny. He could only feel so good with his hands.

Apollyon raised an eyebrow at that. “Oh really now? Well I’ll have to be on my best behaviour then.”

Sebastian blushed a little and lightly punched Apollyon’s shoulder. “Shut up.”


	80. Year 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've always wondered about grandpa turning up in Stardew Valley to evaluate your farm. Like, is it a dream since it happens at night? Is it a Christmas carol kind of thing where he just shows up next to your bed and talks to you? This is my interpretation of that oddness. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Where were they? They didn’t know. There was nothing but darkness here. Normally this would have scared Apollyon senseless, but not now. He felt a strange sense of calm as he seemed to endlessly free fall in this dark abyss. Possibly because of the calming music that seemed to play in his ears. It reminded him of an old music box. Something he probably heard a long time ago but had forgotten.

That was when he saw him. The tired frame of his grandfather slowly hovering towards him while wearing his old comfortable robes and nightcap. He smiled warmly at Apollyon. “Ah, my dearest grandson.” He said in a calming baritone. “It’s been many years since we last spoke. You were just a little boy… Do you remember?”

Apollyon couldn’t help but smile and nod. “Yeah, I remember. You were the one positive male role model I had growing up. Shame you had to kick the bucket so soon.” 

The ghostly apparition laughed a little at that. “Ah yes, well, humans have a tendency to die rather quickly compared to your kind. But still, look how far you’ve come!” He made a sweeping gesture with his arm. It dispelled the darkness revealing Hellfire farm in all its glory.

“Thanks.” He looked over at his grandfather and smiled sadly. “So, does this mean you’re going to haunt me forever now or something? Isn’t that how ghosts work or something.”

“Ah, you see… My body has departed this world, but my heart will always remain in Stardew Valley.” He floated over to a tree and lovingly ran his fingers over a few leaves. “I guess you could say I have transcended and have become one with the valley. As long as the valley remains I will remain as do the spirits of those who have truly connected with the land before me.” He chuckled a little. “In time I might become a Junimo.”

“What?”

“Relax my boy, I’m only joking. Old souls like me are too old to become such things. I’ll more than likely eventually inhabit the body of an animal or a tree or something similar.”

Apollyon nodded a little while he watched the ghost move around his farm. “I see… Why not go to the Yoba plane? Isn’t that where souls go when they die?”

His grandfather paused a little and gave Apollyon a strange look. “... Indeed that is where most go under normal circumstances. However because of my attachment to the land and my strong pull towards Void magic I easily shrugged off the pull of the Yoba plane. And since my death wasn’t malicious I didn’t devolve into an evil spirit.”

“Huh… Okay.”

The ghost straightened his back and smiled. “You’ve been here for two years now… I’m so proud of you. You’re a better farmer than I ever was, and you’ve brought great honor to the family name.”

“I didn’t do that much…”

“Don’t be so modest.” His grandfather started gesturing to everything. “Look at that coup, look at that home, look at those trees and that silo and just everything you’ve done here. And that’s not even including the things you’ve done that aren’t farming.” He gestured back to the farm house. “You’ve got yourself a rather nice young man don’t you?”

Apollyon blushed bright red at that. “Hey well um… Yeah, Sebastian’s amazing. I’ll be with him for the rest of his life if he wishes it. I know I’m never going to be what he really needs while I am like this…”

Hearing his grandson put himself down so much just seemed to curl his grandfather’s moustache. “Don’t be like that. When you fall in love with someone and that someone falls for you that’s a beautiful thing that shouldn’t be ignored… If you want an old man’s advice you should go for it and do whatever it takes to be with them. If being human will make you both happy then take every opportunity to do so.”

“Even if it means talking with Yoba?”

The old man thought for a moment. “... If it comes down to that yes. Yes you should… But I should warn you about them. I have learnt many things about the Yoba plane and all its residents since becoming a spirit of the valley.”

Apollyon nodded and leaned against a fence. The darkness was slowly returning, but now it was being filled with stars. He couldn’t make out any constellations. “Okay. Shoot.”

“Yoba is not what they seem. They might look like a benevolent creator but that’s the thing, they are the creator and we are the creations. They do not have time for creations that do not revear and praise them. Their angels are constantly muttering and singing the praises of their master all day and night.”

“So kiss ass and I should be okay?”

“Pretty much.”

Apollyon nodded. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep that in mind.” He was grateful for his advice. Even if this was a strange dream he would take all of this to heart. He loved the old man.

The old ghost sighed contently. “I can feel it now… My spirits is finally at ease. Bless you Apollyon. The future of Hellfire farm is in your hands, now. Farewell.” His physique slowly started to fade away along with the stars.

***

A loud yelp woke Apollyon up from his sleep. He suddenly felt kind of cold too. He rubbed his eyes and sat up to see that Sebastian had pulled the bed sheets up to his chin as he stared down at the covers. Standing on the covers were Green, Blue, and Red. They waved up at them and squeaked happily.

Apollyon frowned a little and sat up, quickly realising he was completely naked. Then again he didn’t really give a damn about that at the moment. He was just kind of upset that Sebastian stole the blankets from him.

“Gimmie.” He grabbed hold of the blanket and tried to pull it back.

Sebastian’s blush deepened and he tried to pull it back. “No way! I don’t want those things to see me naked!”

“Seb, you took all the blankets. Now I’m sitting here with my dick out in front of them.”

“...” Sebastian shoved a pillow into Apollyon’s chest before covering himself completely with a blanket. “There, you deal with this. It’s too early in the year.”

He sighed and put the pillow on his lap. “Okay you three. What;s up?”

Green pointed at him and made very happy sounds. “Hewow! We wake ooo to Yoba!”

Blue and Red squeaked in excitement and jumped up and down. “Yoba! Yoba! Yoba!”

Apollyon blinked slowly as he looked at them. “Huh, okay… But um maybe right now isn’t such a good idea? I have things to plant and what not. Have you talked to the Wizard about this?”

Red shrugged. “We twy. We twy. He busy wiff not hewow stuff.”

He sighed a little and rubbed some of the sleep out of his eyes. “I see… Well go and talk to the Wizard first before you try anything with me. It’ll be better if he’s involved in this, okay?”

The Junimos squeaked and bounced around a little before climbing off the bed and escaping out the window. Once they were gone he picked up the bundle of sheets that was Sebastian and cuddled him. Sebastian squeaked and looked out from under the covers. “Are they gone?”

“Yep.”

“What did they want?”

“They wanted to send me to Yoba. Have no idea how they would do that.”

Sebastian frowned a little. “Oh… Did I mention I asked them to help with the whole getting you to talk to Yoba thing?”

“Not sure if you said the Junimos were helping you with that but whatever.” He hummed happily and ran his fingers through Sebastian’s hair. “Well we don’t have to deal with them right this minute. Want to watch me dig up some dirt and plant some seeds?”

“... I guess…”

“You just want to drink coffee and sleep?”

“Maybe…”

Apollyon chuckled a little and kissed his cheek. “Okay. I’m gonna get up, drink some juice and hoe that dirt and if you haven’t gotten up and made us both coffee when I get back I’ll make us both a pot.”

“Mmm okay… Just put some pants on first.”

“Nah, thought I’d run around naked and do it that way. Turn my farm into a nudist farm.” He chuckled a little at the thought. “Probably a bad idea though. I don’t want to get sunburn on my dick.”

“...” Sebastian wiggled a little and pushed Apollyon out of bed. “Out you go. Goodbye. Hoe that dirt.”

Apollyon laughed, stretched, and pulled on some pants before heading out. Before he went and started to hoe the dirt he went and let his chickens roam free in their area. They happily clucked as they waddled around and pecked at the dirt. Once he was sure they were happy Apollyon grabbed his hoe and started to work.

As he worked he couldn’t help but think about his dream. While it was nice to see his grandfather once again he couldn’t help but feel that it was a little more than just a dream. Especially since the old man was a man that used magic it really could have been some crazy spell he did to make it so. He was such a strange man.

He took off his shirt and hung it on a post. It was way too warm to be doing this so early in the morning. Damn all this heat. Curse the weather. How dare the planet rotate in a way that heated everything up? So rude and inconsiderate.

***

It took Sebastian a little while but he eventually pulled himself out of bed and made the two of them some coffee. Then with much reluctance he ventured outside. He hated all this dumb Spring and Summer weather. Way too warm for his liking. He’d rather it be Winter all the time or at least Fall.

He wandered outside with a cup of coffee for Apollyon and froze for a moment. Apollyon was out in the yard, shirtless, and damn did he look fine. He took a long, slow sip of coffee and appreciated the view he had been blessed with. That was until he turned around and he saw all the scratches on his back. Then he almost choked to death on his coffee. There was no way that was all him last night.

He felt like he should say something, like telling him to put his shirt back on or something about sunscreen. Instead he just blurted out the first thing that came to his head. “Nice butt.” Now he wanted to kill himself.

Apollyon gave Sebastian a strange look before looking over his own shoulder down at his butt. “... Thanks? You have a nice butt too?”

An extreme blush quickly overtook Sebastian’s face. “I’m going home! Here’s your coffee!” He put Apollyon’s coffee mug down and quickly headed up the path back to his house. He was so embarrassed. Why the hell did he say that? He blamed his caffeine not kicking in properly for saying that.

He walked into his house only to surprise Robin who was just looking through her blueprints. “Sebby! How wonderful to see you up so early. Is there something you need?”

“... I live here?”

“Well yes I know that but you know… I would have thought you would have been here later since you spent the night with Apollyon and all that.”

He blushed a little at that thought and shook his head. “He had to go and do stuff. First day of Spring and all. Didn’t want to get in the way.”

She didn’t seem very happy or convinced with that answer, but let it be. “Well, now that you’re up and about, you can help me out a little.”

“Um…”

“You can help me organise my blueprints.”

“Ah…”

“Maybe help me sharpen some of my saws or maybe my whittling tools?”

“Oh…”

“I know!” She ducked behind the counter and came back up with three decent sized logs bound together with thick straps of leather. “Take this hardwood down to Leah would you? She asked specifically for this to be delivered today. I think she has some art project that needs hardwood. Have fun and enjoy the day Sebby.”

“... Okay mum.” With a heavy sigh he picked up the hardwood and slowly made his way to Leah’s cabin. He decided to cut across back through Apollyon’s farm and wasn’t surprised to see his lover running around, still shirtless.

As soon as he saw Sebastian he grinned and waved at him. “Hey there cutie butt. Back already?”

Sebastian blushed and kept on walking. “I’m running an errand for my mum. She wants me to give these logs to Leah.”

Apollyon nodded a little in thought. “I see… Well once you’ve done that come back and I’ll treat you to some tasty breakfast.”

“I’d like that.”

***

Meanwhile at the Wizard’s tower the Junimos had just finished explaining to a very tired Wizard their plans to take Apollyon to meet Yoba. To be honest, the Wizard didn’t think this was going to work at all. So much could and probably would go wrong.

“This plan won’t work.”

Green puffed up this cheeks and stamped their feet. “It will! You no bewieve becaws you no hewow! Hewow of vawee bewieve!”

Blue crossed their arms. “He big meanie. He no bewieve us. He big dumb meanie!”

“Hey! I’m just saying it’s a dumb thing to do.” Explained the Wizard calmly. “Are you bringing Yoba here?”

The Junimos laughed at that notion. Red pretended to wipe away tears of laughter. “Yoba no come here. Yoba never come here again. Yoba wive in Yoba plane. Here not good. Here bad. We take hewow to Yoba plane. Face to face with Yoba.” The other Junimos happily squeaked and jumped around at that notion.

This just gave the Wizard a headache. “But Apollyon is a demon… Yoba and demon’s don’t mix. Remember?”

Green shrugged. “Yoba will talk wif hewow becaws we chose dem as hewow. So… Blpppppppppppppp!” 

The Wizard was surprised that the Junimo blew a raspberry at him. He knew they were childish but this was ridiculous. “Hey, you stop that now. One of us has to be the adult in this situation.”

Blue put their hand up. “Me! Me adult!”

“Nu me!” Said Red. “I adult! me!”

Green huffed and stamped their feet. “Nu! Me! Me adult!” The Wizard sighed. He was getting nowhere and could only watch as the Junimos descended into yet another slap fight.


	81. Junimo's are persistent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone. With the holiday season upon us once again and I, having finished all my shopping things, have just been writing away because apparently fire whisky inspires me or some BS like that. Anyway, kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Spring was still as warm as ever and Apollyon was enjoying his life again. Though he did have some reservations concerning what the Junimos were planning for him. He half expected the little apple bastards to randomly try and kidnap him at some point and shove him into the Yoba plane. He really needed to avoid magic portals.

He leaned against his fence and watched Robin hammering away his new barn. As soon as that was ready he would be getting a cow. He wanted to make some cheese. He had a craving for gouda and cheddar. 

“You sure you don’t need me to help out?” He asked.

Robin shook her head as she looked through her tool box. “It’s okay Apollyon. This is my job after all… though it would be nice if Sebby came out to see me…”

Apollyon chuckled a little at that thought. Sebastian was still on his laptop when Apollyon went to bed at midnight last night. He said he was doing work but when he woke up in the morning he was still on his laptop and he was watching some game strategy guide. “Ah, well he was up working late… But he should be up soon. I’ve been trying to train him to get up earlier with things like coffee and cinnamon toast.”

She nodded in approval. “Ah, well anything that helps him have a normal sleep schedule is good. Thanks for being such a good influence on Sebastian.”

“... Me?”

She chuckled. “Yes you silly. Because of you he’s been out of the house more and well… He’s been more open about himself. Can you believe I had no idea he was gay until he told me two years ago? I feel awful for not knowing… But that was then.” She smiled warmly at Apollyon. “Anyway, thank you.”

Apollyon could feel his cheeks burning. “If I can be completely honest with you Robin, I think Sebastian’s changed me more than I changed him.” He didn’t really want to delve too deep into what had happened, but it was all true. Sebastian had really changed him. He wouldn’t be nearly as happy as he was without Sebastian.

Robin laughed lightly and started hammering some nails into the floor. “Well aren’t those the best kind of relationships? The kind where both parties change each other for the better? Demetrius and I have had that effect on each other.”

“Oh?”

“Yep. It might not seem like it but I’ve helped him to unwind and relax a fair bit more than he used to, and I… Well I’m a lot more organised than I once was.”

“You? Not organised? I couldn’t imagine.”

“Oh yeah. I was super unorganized and couldn’t even think about starting my day will I ran around for an hour trying to find everything. Thanks to Demetrius I now have a system.”

“That’s nice.” He pulled himself away from the fence and sling his axe over his shoulders. “Speaking of wood, I’m heading down to the secret woods to see if I can find any more hardwood. If you need to use the bathroom feel free to go inside. Help yourself to what’s in the fridge too.”

“You’re too sweet dear.”

He waved to her and headed down to the secret woods. As he walked he swore he could hear the sound on Junimos peeking out at him from the shrubbery. That just made him worry that they would try and poof him to the Yoba plane. He was not ready to face Yoba yet. 

Then again, what did he need to do to face Yoba? Did he need to get stronger? He could do that, but only if he ate huge amounts of Void essence. If he couldn’t do that then what could he do? They would see him and rip him apart in the blink of an eye. He wasn’t fond of that. There was also the matter of what would happen if he entered the Yoba plane. That place would have Solar essence everywhere. It would be like swimming in a vat of acid.

He tried to clear his mind of those thoughts as he started chopping wood. However, on his third swing he almost forced the blade into the body of Green who had jumped up on the stump to wave at him. “Hewow!”

“Fuck!” He missed them and hit the dirt instead. “Don’t fucking do that! What do you want?”

Green seemed oblivious as to how close they came to suddenly dying. “Take ooo to Yoba soon! Meanie Wizard say he go too… We talk to Elder Junimo though! Elder Junimo tell us what we need do!”

“... Elder Junimo?”

Green happily bounced up and down. “Elder Junimo! Biggest Junimo ever! Elder live in Yoba plane. First Junimo ever made by Yoba. We talk to them. They tell us if ask Yoba for something big we need witnesses!”

“Witnesses?” It seems like the Junimo had been busy since the last time they spoke.

Green was super excited. “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I go wit ooo! I tell Yoba ooo hewow of vawee! Meanie Wizard tell Yoba ooo do good fings for vawee. Hewow partner tell Yoba ooo good person.”

“Whoa, hold on a second there little guy, Sebastian’s not setting foot in the Yoba plane.”

The Junimo’s excitement quickly faded and was left with confusion. “He no go? Why? Ooo need him to talk to Yoba. Elder Junimo say ooo need at least three witnesses. Three. Me, Wizard, hewow partner. Dat’s three.”

“I’m not involving Sebastian in anymore of this supernatural bullshit. Okay?” There was no way Apollyon was going to put Sebastian in any kind of danger because of what he was again. He would never be able to forgive himself if Yoba decided to damn Sebastian for all eternity for pleading on behalf of a demon. He still wasn’t sure if the concept of a soul really existed, but on the off chance that it was he wanted Sebastian’s to be able to return to the Yoba plane.

Green just pouted and put their little stick arms on their hips. “Why not? Ooo need three to talk to Yoba for ooo. Ooo are demon. Demon not good in Yoba’s eyes. But ooo good demon. Yoba will agree ooo good and help ooo.”

Apollyon sighed a little and picked up their axe. “Okay, say we all go to the Yoba plane and do talk to them. What’s the chance that they will actually make me human and not like, you know… kill me? Fuck, what’s the chance they will just kick me out if they don’t like me and leave me as a demon?”

Green shrugged. “Don’t know. We still gonna take ooo to Yoba in a few days. Bye bye!” They quickly waved, jumped off the stump and ran back into the forest. Those strange creatures were eventually going to be the death of him.

Now Apollyon had a dilemma. He really didn’t want Sebastian involved with this any longer than he needed to and if he was honest with himself he would like to keep this a secret. However keeping supernatural secrets a secret from Sebastian tended to backfire on him. Especially since the Junimo’s seem like they want to involve him in this anyway. 

He sighed and continued to chop wood. When he was done here he’d go and have a proper talk with Sebastian about this. Hopefully he would see the reasoning behind Apollyon’s thinking and not go to the Yoba plane. If he had to he could always ask Elizabeth. She’d be a good character reference.

***

Unfortunately Sebastian didn’t see reason. “Yeah, no. I’m going with you.”

Apollyon felt like bashing his head against a wall. “Why? Yoba could decide you’re evil and punish you too for trying to help me.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “If Yoba’s gonna punish me for that he’s overlooking all the other things that I’ve done that should have damned me instead… Besides, I have a few things I need to yell at them about anyway.”

“Like?”

“Disease, why bad things happen to good people, inequality, and all that stuff. Yoba’s a dick.”

Apollyon actually did hit his head against the wall. “Well yeah, but still I can’t protect you if Yoba decides they are going to punish you. I’m just one demon in a realm made to reject me.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Then I’ll just have to not do anything stupid. Look, I’m still going with you and that’s final. You’ve already done so much for me I’ll do anything for you… Now stop smashing your head against the wall.” 

With a sigh Apollyon moved away from the wall and flopped onto the couch. Sometimes he wished Sebastian wasn’t so damn stubborn. “Seriously Sebastian, you probably shouldn’t be going to meet Yoba. I can call my mum and she can take your place.”

“No.”

“You frustrate me.”

“Well if you didn’t want me to frustrate you, you shouldn’t have told me about this.”

“... Well I kind of assumed something horrible would happen if I didn’t tell you about this.” Muttered Apollyon. He lightly rubbed his forehead and frowned. “Do I have splinters in my forehead?”

Sebastian looked down at his demon lover and lightly touched his face. “... Nah, you’re fine. Is my mum still working?”

“You didn’t go out and say hi to her?”

“I don’t like talking to her when she’s working.” He sipped some coffee that he brewed earlier. “She gets into this zone and I feel bad bothering her.”

“Huh. Okay.” He looked over at the clock and then to the kitchen. “I’m going to make lunch for us. You good with spaghetti?”

“You just want my mum to love you.”

“Damn right I do.” Apollyon started to quickly gather what he needed for lunch. “If you haven’t guessed by now I’m a big mama’s boy. I gotta make sure my lover’s mother at least tolerated me somewhat.”

“... So you tried to play nice with all your exes mums?”

Apollyon shrugged. “It was easier for parents to like me when I was in straight relationships… Also because of my bad boy nature some people might have thought I was hitting on some mother’s and wives… And I think at least one dad thought I was hitting on them.”

“Were you?”

“Fuck no. I was in high school. Only sick fucks wanna shack up a kid. I got grossed out and usually decked the sick fucks that tried hitting on me.” He shuddered a little at the thought. “Creepy disgusting perverts… Go tell your mum I’m making lunch.”

“Fine.” Sebastian kissed his cheek before going out to talk to his mum.

The kiss made Apollyon blush. Sebastian was so sweet, and damn stubborn. What was he going to do with him? Meeting Yoba was too damn dangerous. That’s what he thought anyway. Now he had to think about maybe knocking Sebastian out and tying him up somewhere for a few hours… Sebastian in rope? Now that was a pretty sight.

“... No. Bad demon!” He hit himself with a wooden spoon. “Don’t think those thoughts. Not now. Not now. Robin is outside. Can’t screw Sebastian while Robin is here.”

He could just imagine having one of those shoulder angels and devils egging him on to screw Sebastian. Oh yes, both of them would be doing this. The angel on his shoulder would just be telling him to do it in a different room from Robin. The devil wouldn’t give two shits because well, demon’s didn’t have the same sense of modesty and morals as humans. Even so he knew better to do any of that kind of stuff with Sebastian in front of people. Sebastian was still embarrassed to kiss him in public. Holding hands was still a big deal for them.

He laughed a little at that, trying desperately to shake off any awkward feelings he was having. Thankfully he completely forgot about that when he smelt the spaghetti sauce burning. He rushed to save it and with a little work he had done it.

By the time he had finished Robin and Sebastian made their appearance and the three of them had a relatively peaceful time. Robin talked a lot about what she was doing with the barn and asked a lot of questions about what kind of animals Apollyon was going to get.

“I’m going to start with some cows and then maybe a goat.” Said Apollyon happily. “Then maybe some sheep and pigs. That would be nice.”

Robin beamed when she heard that. “That would be so good. I can upgrade your barn when you get enough materials to accommodate sheep and pigs… You know, I can also fix up a stable for you so you can have a horse.” 

Apollyon perked up when he heard that. “Really? That would be so cool. I’d love a horse. How hard are they to ride? I heard it can be murder for some guys.”

Robin chuckled a little at that. “Well I guess. You’ll just need the right kind of saddle. Something with a fair bit of padding? What do you think Sebby?”

Sebastian frowned as he looked down at his spaghetti. “I don’t care.”

“... Sebastian?”

Robin sighed a little. “Pay no mind to him Apollyon. Sebastian doesn’t like horses. One bit him when he was younger. Though it didn’t actually bit him, it bit the back of his jumper and kind of tossed him… Shetland ponies are mean.”

Sebastian went beet red. “Mum!”

Apollyon tried his best not to laugh at that. “Oh really? How old were you at the time?”

“Sebby was only five at the time.” Clarified Robin. “After that he wouldn’t go to a petting zoo ever again… And when we did go to a place that had one Sebastian wouldn’t even stand near the fence while Maru went in to pat the sheep. Which I must say is quite surprising that he’s okay with spending a lot of time on a farm.”

By now it was pretty obvious that Sebastian was thoroughly embarrassed. “I’m not a little kid anymore mum…”

Apollyon nodded a little. “I see… So you would be okay if it isn’t a shetland?” Sebastian blushed and stuffed his cheeks full of pasta so he didn’t have to answer. That just made Apollyon and Robin laugh. He was cute when he got all flustered like that. 

“It’s okay Sebby.” Said Robin. “If Apollyon gets a horse I’ll double check with Marnie to make sure it’s a nice horse. One that won’t bite people.”

Sebastian was still embarrassed but he seemed to look a little relieved to hear Robin say that. It kind of amazed Apollyon that Sebastian seemed more worried about a horse than coming face to face with Yoba. Shouldn’t the creation be humbled by their creator or something?

***

The Junimos were once again standing in a circle in the community center. They were practicing opening the way up to the Yoba plane. They were getting really good at it too. The rifts were getting bigger and bigger each time too. Most times they could hear the voice of the Elder Junimo on the other side too.

Today they were planning to make the final preparations on the other side. With a chanting of the final phrase the rift opened up to warm glowing light. It gave off a feeling of calm and peace that filled the whole center.

A huge looming shadow on the other side walked up to the rift but didn’t cross the threshold. It stood there and laughed like a jolly old man. “Hello everyone. How are things going?”

White quickly waddled over, waving their cane. “Hello! Nice to hear from you again Elder. We pretty much have it all sorted. The Wizard, Green, and the hero’s partner will accompany the hero to talk to Yoba.”

“Wonderful. I have a spell prepared to prevent the other angels from attacking your hero when he comes here.”

Green quickly ran over, bumping into White. “Hey, hey! Is it all good on your side? The hero seems to be really worried about his partner. You gotta look after him. He’s just a human after all.”

The Elder Junimo chuckled. “Of course. They are just coming here as a witness. We will look after them as much as we can. At the first sign of danger we can whisk him away back to the human realm. It will be easy.”

Green nodded. “Good. The hero will be happy to know that. We’re going to do this in a few days, yes?”

“Yep. I look forward to seeing you all in the Yoba plane. Yoba is expecting you to visit really soon.” The Junimos happily squeaked and waved goodbye to Elder Junimo who in turn waved back as the rift closed once again.


	82. To the Yoba plane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas and a happy holidays to one and all. Hope family gatherings/gatherings in general turn out well. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

It happened, It finally happened. The mother fucking Junimos finally kidnapped him and took him to the community center. It was really crazy. He just walked outside, heard one of them whistle, he looked up, and a junimo dropped a coconut on his head. What the fuck?

Physical assault and kidnapping aside Apollyon was kind of happy to see that the community center still looked relatively okay. He still had some fish to give them and a few other bundles before things were completely repaired. He rubbed his head and slowly sat up and glared at the Junimos that were happily bouncing around and waving up at him.

“You little fucks could have just asked me to come here. You didn’t have to knock me out with a fucking coconut!”

Blue shrugged. “We ask next time then.”

Apollyon facepalmed hard. “No, not next time. No more kidnapping people. That’s bad. I thought you guys were good and stuff or something? Stop fucking doing this shady shit.”

Blue shrugged again and waddled off to talk to the other Junimos. This just annoyed Apollyon and he got up to leave. Unfortunately today seemed to be a bad luck day for him and the community center door swung open and slammed into his face, knocking him back onto his ass.

“Ow…”

“Oh fuck! Are you okay Apollyon?” Asked Sebastian. He quickly knelt down by his lover and looked over his face. “I’m so sorry. That yellow Junimo stole my charger cord and wouldn’t give it back unless I followed them…”

Apollyon looked over at Yellow who was poking other Junimos with the charger cord. It made the other Junimos squeal and run away from them like they had were going to get zapped or something. He yanked it away from Yellow and handed it back to Sebastian. “Here.”

“Thanks… So why do they want us here?”

“Who knows? Junimos are weird.”

Suddenly there was a small flash of light and the Wizard appeared carrying White. ‘Ah good. You’re both here.” He put White down. “Now we can begin.”

“Begin what?” Asked Sebastian as he tucked away his charger cord into his pocket.

The Wizard gave him a puzzled look. “Your idea of course. The Junimos came and told me you came up with the idea to talk to Yoba. They have been working tirelessly to set this meeting up with Yoba.”

“Oh, we’re actually going to do that?” Sebastian seemed really surprised to hear that. He looked over at Apollyon, studying his reaction carefully. “Are you okay with that?”

Honestly, he was not. Apollyon didn’t want to see Yoba much less speak with them. He knew if he went into the Yoba plane he would die. He would die horribly and painfully and then get tortured some more. If he could even reform after dying in the Yoba plane that is.

Despite his fear he put on a brave face and smiled at Sebastian. “Of course I am. Not every day a demon can say that they’ve been to the Yoba plane.”

Hearing that the Junimos squeaked in excitement and quickly formed a circle. They hummed and waved their arms in the air before starting to slowly dance and spin in an anticlockwise direct and started chanting. “Patoong fetang nigrah shigarog. Shigarog, shigarog Yoba patoong. Yongapha! Yongapha! Fetang! Yoba! Yoba! Yoba! Patoong!” A light suddenly appeared in the middle of the circle and all the Junimo’s cheered and congratulated each other. Whatever they had done they had apparently done it successfully. 

Though this didn’t matter much to Apollyon. Just seeing that light filled his entire being with existential dread. He could almost physically feel the hands of some larger being brushing against his skin, daring him to come closer. At the same time he could feel something that could only be described as primal instinct telling him to run. He was going to die if he went there. That’s what his feelings told him.

He wanted to run away and hide under his bed like a scared child. But his feet refused to move so he was stuck there. Stuck with an overwhelming fear that something terrible was going to happen to him. He was sure if the Junimo’s didn’t strike him down with a coconut and drag him here he probably would have flat out refused to come here.

He felt Sebastian hold his hand and gently squeeze. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Apollyon tried to be reassuring once again with his smile but he had a feeling it looked forced. “I’m fine. Really. You don’t need to worry about me at all.” Of course it was all lies. He was scared.

He tried to distract himself and build some courage by looking at the Junimos. Many of them were going up to Green and shaking their hands while offering words of encouragement. They looked like they were ready to to go. At least they looked pleased with themselves.

Apollyon nervously squeezed Sebastian’s hand. “S-so are you worried? We’re going to meet your god after all.”

Sebastian gave a slightly nervous laugh. “Well yeah I kind of am. You realise up until a year or two ago I was pretty much an atheist right? I didn’t think that Yoba was a thing but here you are and here all this bullshit is.”

“Yeah, I guess it can be pretty jarring huh? So you gonna convert to Yobaism now?”

“Fuck no. Have you ever read the book of Yoba? There are so many bullshit translations of it out there. Who the fuck really knows what Yoba wants from us?”

“True. At least you can ask him about it now.”

“I guess so… Hey Wizard, are we going now?”

The Wizard nodded. “Yep. We’re just waiting on you two of you to be ready.” Green jumped up and down excitedly as they squeaked excitedly. Clearly they wanted to get going to the Yoba plane as soon as possible. It made sense the Yoba plane was technically the home of the Junimos.

Deciding they were taking too long Green huffed and ran through to the other side. Tis made the other Junimos squeak in shock. The Wizard sighed a little and followed Green, leaving Sebastian and Apollyon alone with the rest of the Junimos.

“So I guess… I guess we should get going?” Stuttered Apollyon failing horribly at hiding his fear.

Sebastian nodded a little and took a deep breath. “Yeah… Guess we can’t turn back now huh?”

Hand in hand the two men stepped into the circle. Apollyon felt a sudden wave of vertigo as he was unceremoniously yanked from the human realm and thrown into the Yoba plane. It was so damn bright there despite the face he could feel the shade of the trees over head. Apollyon rubbed his eyes as he tried to adjust to the new environment.

Once his eyes had adjusted he realised that they were face to face with a giant golden Junimo. This thing was the size of a house, however it seemed to retain the mentality of any other Junimo. Green quickly ran over to them and climbed up them so they were sitting on top of the creature’s head. The giant Junimo chuckled. 

“Well hello there you three. I am known affectionately as Elder to the Junimos. Everyone else calls me Elder Junimo. Now let me guess…” They pointed their log like arm at the Wizard. “You would be the one the other Junimo call the meanie Wizard.”

The Wizard spluttered a little in shock. “Meanie Wizard? Am I really seen in such a negative light?”

Elder just ignored him and looked between Sebastian and Apollyon. “Hmm, so I guess that would make you the hero’s partner and the demon would be the hero?”

Sebastian just looked shocked that a giant Junimo was talking to him. “Um yeah I guess… I’m Sebastian.”

“And I’m Apollyon.” He started scratching at his skin. The sickly sweet nature of this place was irritating his skin. Heck he was starting to feel like he was suffering from some kind of allergy just from being here. It was annoying. “So are we going to see Yoba or what?”

“Of course. Follow me.” Elder turned and happily started waddling down a long, winding cobblestone pathway bordered by trees.

Though his place seemed whimsical and like something from a fairytale it was very quickly having an adverse effect on Apollyon’s body. His eyes were starting to get itchy and his throat felt like it was getting rubbed with sandpaper. He could even start to feel some of his skin drying out and flaking away. It disturbed him but it wasn’t unexpected.

At least Sebastian seemed surprised by the things that surrounded him. That was nice.He guessed it must have been amazing to see the domain of your creator before you died. If he wasn’t in so much pain he would probably be curious with wonderment too.

The exited the patch of trees and entered what seemed to be a huge sprawling farm that extended far beyond the horizon. Each field was filled with so many different crops. From what Apollyon could see he saw ancient fruit, sweet gem berries, leeks, beans, melons and pumpkins. That wasn’t even counting the number of fruit trees that seemed to segregate fields according to seasons, even though they were all growing together at once.

As for man made looking structures he could see well over fifty barns and coops dotted around the area. Tending to the animals were many of Yoba’s angels. He saw the all too familiar Gar-dinners hovering around the plants. Junimos of all colours waddled around collecting fruits and vegetables. Other strange and bizarre looking creatures walked, hovered, and flew over the farm. That really unsettled him. If one of them realised he was a demon he was going to die. When did he start shaking?

Elder seemed to sense Apollyon’s unease. “They won’t harm you while you stay close to me. I cast a spell to protect you since I think your cause is a noble one.”

“R-right… thanks…” His voice came out a little more raspy than it probably should have. He felt Sebastian gently squeeze his hand to give him some reassurance. It provided some comfort. 

The Wizard hummed a little and pointed off to the distance. “Is that what I think it is?”

Elder hummed a little and looked where they were pointing. “Oh? You mean the Colossal angel?”

Looking in that direction Apollyon saw something that looked a little like a humanoid holding up a small island in the sky. This so called Colossal angel was standing far off in the distance, way behind the mountain range. Its legs weren’t visible, but the upper torso was. It was enormous. If he strained his eyes he could see vage silhouettes of those creatures off in the distance. Why did Yoba need these angels? What were they used for?

The Wizard nodded in agreement. “Yes that one. I’ve only read about those beings existing during the elemental wars before the time of proper recorded history.”

“Well when they were done doing their thing Yoba brought them back here.” Said Elder. “But without a living soul to power it, they’re only good for holding up water basins now.”

They continued to follow Elder in relative silence. Apollyon was much too busy trying to keep himself calm. He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t. He needed to reassure himself over and over again to make sure he didn’t snap and run back and demand the Junimos let him go home. Heck, the Void was better than this place.

“Hewow slow!” Yelled Green causing the group to stop. Apollyon hadn’t realised he was so far behind.

“Are you doing okay?” Asked Sebastian. He looked very worried. Maybe this place was putting him on edge too? It was possible. They were in what humans would consider heaven after all.

He smiled at his lover. “I’m okay. Really.” He felt something wet and warm running out of his nose. Apollyon quickly wiped it away and was shocked to see that this wasn’t blood but Void essence. In a strange way it made sense. There was nothing but Solar essence here and that essence purged Void essence from ones body and soul. Something whose whole body is saturated in the stuff would get sicker much faster than a human who only held a small amount inside them.

Green squeaked and looked down at Elder. “Dat bad thing? Why hewow leaking? Why he do dat?”

Elder hummed a little as they observed what was happening. “Well, I guess this is why demons don’t come here… We should hurry and talk to Yoba. The older we wait the worse he will become.” 

It grabbed hold of Apollyon and put them on their head and started to waddle faster. This sudden movement made Apollyon yell out in protest, but they were ignored. Within minutes they came to a surprisingly simple and modest looking farmhouse. Elder put Apollyon back down and waddled over to the door.

“Okay.” Said Elder. “This is Yoba’s home. Please be respectful to the creator of all things and you know. Do all the polite things. Don’t speak unless spoken to. Keep your head down. All that stuff you’d do for a god.” Elder opened the door and despite the laws of physics that dictated a creature that’s the size of a house should not fit through a tiny door the Junimo went in with ease and beconned the trio to follow.

Stepping into the farmhouse the trio were shocked to see they were inside some kind of grand room made of black and white marble with accents of gold, red velvet curtains stretched up into the clouds above since this place didn’t seem to have a ceiling at all. In the center of this room was a tree with a trunk made from precious metals and the leaves were made from thousands of different gemstones in the shape of a throne. Upon the throne sat something wrapped in thousands of light, fluffy, white feathered wings. Was this Yoba?

Elder made a happy sound as they quickly waddled to the throne. “Oh great Yoba! It is I, Elder Junimo. Remember the thing I told you about? The thing with the thing and the other thing, right?”

Yoba sighed a little and spoke in a voice that was a very unsettling mix between a male and female voice. Young and old at the same time. It even reverberated and created a strong sense of unease for everyone but the Junimos.

“You have told me many things my dearest Junimo. What have you come to tell me about today?”

As they spoke Apollyon felt his blood run cold. He felt like he was going to be sick. This was Yoba. Mother fucking Yoba. A god. A god that hated him. A god that could very easily kill him if they damn well pleased. He needed to keep his cool. He needed to stay calm. He couldn’t show this thing that he was afraid. He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t afraid. He was fucking terrified.

Elder happily waddled closer to Yoba. “The thing about the hero of Stardew Valley. They want to be human because they are a demon.”

At the word demon Yoba’s feathers seemed to quickly flutter and shimmer. “You were serious about that? You brought a demon into my realm?” They sighed. “My dearest Junimo, I applaud your willingness to trust people, but it is your downfall.” One of their many wings unfurled and and made a dismissive motion. Seconds layer vines cracked through the marble floor and quickly ensnared Apollyon. “I will not tolerate demons playing dress up my domain.” 

Once he was secure the vines sprouted barbed thorns that drilled into his skin.

Apollyon gasped and gagged a little. There were a few especially tight vines digging into his throat. He dared not move in case the thorns slashed his throat and made him bleed out. He had no idea what would happen if he died in the Yoba plane. He had to stay calm. He had to.

The Wizard was the first to speak. “Oh great Yoba, we humbly request that you release Apollyon and listen to our request to-” The Wizard suddenly looked panicked as he grabbed his throat. He wasn’t in pain but it didn’t look like he could speak.

Yoba sighed again, but more in an irritated manner than before. “Human wizard, you need to know your place within my realm. Angels are above you. You are above humans. Humans are above animals. You will wait to be addressed.” They turned their attention back to Elder Junimo. “Now, this is the first time you have done something like this so I will overlook it. But just this once.”

Green huffed and jumped up and down on the Elder’s head. “Nuuuuuuu!!! Wisten to us! Yoba, da hewow is berry guud! He guud person! He guud to everyone! Everyone!”

“Oh really now?” Yoba didn’t seem convinced at all. If anything they only seemed amused by Green’s bouncing around. “What say you Wizard?” They flicked out one of their smaller wings and the Wizard gasped and coughed as he got his voice back.

“Um yes… Yoba, my god and lord above all. Apollyon is very respectful of nature and has kept the balance well within our community despite his own personal hardships.”

“Interesting… and you? The human who hasn’t spoken a single word while in my presence. What say you? This demon has done what to make you think he’s a good person?”

Sebastian swallowed thickly, unable to actually look at their god. “I-I… Apollyon he is… He’s my boyfriend.”

“... Huh.” Yoba didn’t seem to be disgusted or shocked by this revelation. Just… mildly disappointed? They then turned their attention to Apollyon. “So what is it you request from me you vile creature of the Void. What can I, a god, give to you that you cannot scrounge up yourself with your filthy claws?”

Apollyon did his best to stop his voice from trembling. “I um… I-I want to be human. I can’t be a demon anymore. I want to be human. I have to. Please. I’ll do anything just… please...”

Yoba was quiet for a moment and went into deep thought. “That is… acceptable.” A small delicate arm extended from within the feathers. Just like the rest of the room this appendage seemed to be made of black and white marble with golden accents throughout. For a moment they extended an open palm to Apollyon before swiftly making a fist. This in turn caused the vines to crush Apollyon’s body while the thorns dug into him. He managed to let out a shriek of pain before everything went dark and Yoba’s voice rang out once again “Let the trials begin.”


	83. First trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Apollyon was starting to think that he should have stayed in bed today. Meeting Yoba was so not worth all this. He didn’t even know what the fuck was happening anymore. After getting crushed his vision went red, possibly from the blood running into his eyes. Now he was in some kind of black hallway. Wonderful. He didn’t even know what he was doing here.

He sighed and started walking down the hallway hearing his feet echo along the ground. Feet? Wasn’t he wearing shoes? Fuck it. Shoes didn’t really matter that much right now. He kept walking.

He kept walking till his feet started hurting. He had no idea how long he had been walking. Suddenly he lost his footing and fell down a flight of stairs. He couldn’t see it because of how dark everything was. With an extremely loud thwack he smashed his head against the ground at the bottom of the steps.

“Ow… fuck…” He slowly sat up and touched his head. His skull felt like a cracked eggshell. Not falling apart but you could feel it start to bow when apply pressure to it. “Fucking damn it. What the fuck is this bullshit?”

Once again he had to pull himself up and examine his surroundings. Much to his surprise he was in a room with a giant cage. He couldn’t see what was in the cage but he could hear something moving inside it.

“... Fuck it.” Apollyon went up to the cage and started hitting the bars. “Hello? Something in there? You wanna talk, let’s talk. You wanna fight, let’s fight. I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

Suddenly a pair of hands reached out and grabbed at the bars in front of Apollyon and pulled themselves towards them. They looked just like him but sicker. They had bloodshot eyes, sickly looking skin, hair sticking out in wild directions, and their arms were bloodstained up to their elbows.

“You’re no fun.” Growled out his doppelganger. 

Apollyon shrugged. “Today has not been a good day. So what do you want? You meant to represent my demon side or something like that? Do I have to fight you to the death to prove I’m stronger than you?”

“What? Fuck no. I just the dramatic entrances.” Said the Doppelganger. The walked over to the side of the cage and pushed it open, walking out. “While yes I am representative of your demonic side I got better things to do than just try to beat the shit out of you and take control or whatever shit you think I’m meant to do.”

“Huh… Alright.” Apollyon shoved his hands into his pockets and watched the Doppelganger closely. “Now what?”

They shrugged. “It’s your mind dumbass… Want to look back at some memories? Haven’t done that in a while. You don’t tend to want to remember your early days as a human.”

“Yeah, those days kind of sucked for me… Reliving those days is not something I like doing.”

Ignoring his doubts the Doppelganger walked off towards a door that somehow appeared in this dark room. He had no idea how this was going to work, but he didn’t really care at this point. He was just happy that Yoba wasn’t here.

The Doppelganger opened the door and the duo went inside. They were standing in a park playground. He vaguely remembered this place. It was somewhere on the North side of Zuzu city. He hadn’t lived there since he was a very small child. Maybe ten or eleven at most.

“I remember this day…” He muttered quietly.

“Oh?” Questioned the Doppelganger. “What happened on this day me?”

Apollyon sighed. “Some kids from school found out I was homeless and decided to tease me about it.” He watched as a child version of himself was walking by the park. Stalking behind him were two other children.

A dark smirk spread across the other’s lips. “They were shitty kids weren’t they? They teased you. Called you a freak. Wanted you to get the fuck out of their school. They called you dirty. Trash. They threw things at you.” The memory continued to play out and the children yelled insults at Apollyon while throwing sticks and rocks at him.

“... I beat the ever loving shit out of them.” The memory kept playing out before them. Apollyon’s child self eventually snapped and charged at the bullies. He easily knocked one to the ground and punched him several times in the face before picking up the other one and throwing them into the playground equipment, breaking their arm before running away. “... The police never did catch me for that.”

“The little fucks were scared of you. As they should be.” Said the Doppelganger happily. “You’re a demon. If you really wanted to you could have ripped their guts out. You already mutilated a bunch of cultists that tried to sacrifice you.”

“Well they were shit heads and deserved that.”

“No doubt about it.” The Doppelganger cross their arms and huffed. “I really can’t stand a species that murders without the intent to eat what they kill. Fucking annoying… Then again that just might be because we are a bottom feeder. We ate all the random crap that other demons couldn’t or discarded.” 

“Yeah…” Apollyon looked around. “Is there a way we can leave? I don’t want to see this anymore.”

The Doppelganger shrugged and continued to walk past a tree, vanishing. Apollyon quickly followed them. Now they were in some alleyway in Zuzu city. He saw his teenage self in a fight with some kid from another school. He remembered this one pretty well.

The bully slammed Apollyon’s teen self into a wall and held him in place by pressing his arm right against his neck. “Perverted faggot. You think you can kiss my brother and get away with it?”

His teen self struggled slightly from the sudden movement but otherwise was just a cocky little shit. “Trust me, if you hadn’t have walked in on us I would have been shoving a lot more than my tongue down his throat.” That earned him a punch to the guts but Apollyon’s teen self couldn't stop smirking. “Your brother’s mouth tasted like strawberry candy.”

Enraged the bully continued to punch and kick Apollyon till he was in the foetal position on the ground. “Fucking bastard! Fucking die you faggot son of a bitch!”

Eventually his teen self grew tired of the beating and decided to end it. They grabbed hold of the bullies foot and shoved them back so they hit the ground. “As much fun as it would be to continue being your punching bag, I’ve wasted enough time with you.” He twisted their foot so it was just on the cusp of fracturing if they applied just a little pressure. “Let’s get a few things straight here shit lord. I’m bi. I like boys and girls. Your brother is cute and has a nice ass. He’s bi curious and was interested in kissing a guy. If you fucking attack me again I will break your fucking jaw, rip it out of your face and rape you with it.” He shoved them away and started to make his way out of the alley way.

Both the Doppelganger and Apollyon visibly cringed at the childish threats. At least they could both agree that they had made progress when it came to the creativity and maturity of their threats. They had quickly learnt threats meant more if you were willing to carry them out.

Suddenly the bully got up and grabbed a rock. They rushed at Apollyon’s teenage self and smashed it into the back of his head. There was a brief pause before Apollyon’s teen self turned around, grabbed the bully by the throat and started to repeatedly punch them in the face. Several teeth went flying before they dropped them and left the alleyway for good.

Apollyon didn’t feel good about that memory. “I considered going back you know. I really did want to kill that kid. I saw him a few times near the train station and just wanted to push him in front of a train.”

“I know.” Said the Doppelganger. “Come on.” The took Apollyon by the arm and took them out of the alleyway. Now they were standing in some shitty looking apartment. Not the one he lived in when he was in Zuzu city. This was an ex’s place. He saw himself and that thing he had naively called a friend about a year before he moved to Stardew Valley.

They two of them were on a couch drinking some cheap beer. That thing had an arm around him as they whispered sweet nothings into his ear while pushing more alcohol into his hands. At the time he had just assumed that his friend had drunk too much himself and that’s why he was acting that way. In hindsight he would have drawn things out a lot longer than he had originally had.

It had all happened so quickly. One second they were just talking and the next he had shoved Apollyon to the floor and attempted to remove his clothes. His younger self just looked confused and shoved him away. “Get the fuck off me.”

That thing on top of him looked confused but continued to hold him down. “What the fuck? How come you’re not out of it? I spiked your beer enough to knock out an elephant.”

“... YOU WHAT?!” Without hesitation his younger self headbutted the bastard in the face and shoved him off. This immediately broke out into a scuffle. Things were thrown and people were pushed into walls. It all climaxed when he pinned Apollyon down and started to strangle him.

The Doppelganger chuckled a little and whispered to Apollyon. “My favourite part is coming up.”

With one hand on the bastard’s wrist, Apollyon’s younger self reached up, dug his nails into the fuckers throat and ripped it out. An explosion of blood covered his younger self’s face before he pushed them off. He sat next to them and watched them bleed out. They gasped and spluttered and desperately tried to cling to Apollyon’s arm, but he just nudged it away and watched him die.

Apollyon shuddered at the graphic memory. “That was… That was one one hell of a day.”

The Doppelganger grinned. “You can’t say he didn’t deserve it. Remember what we found out later? He was a serial rapist connected to five unsolved cases, and that’s just the people that came forward. Who knows how many he hurt? Could be in the hundreds.”

“So the end justifies the means?”

“Fuck yeah. Especially in this case.” The Doppelganger sighed and leaned against Apollyon. “Remember when we told mum and Colt what happened? Mum was shocked but understood why what happened, happened. Colt didn’t see it that way did he?”

“He argued with mum and tried to convince her that I should go to jail.”

“He did.” The Doppelganger sighed. “It took a bit of convincing before Colt went to get some LSD so everything could have been blamed on a very bad trip.”

“Yeah…” He shuddered a little. “It wasn’t fair… I did the right thing. I killed that disgusting fucker. I should have been given a medal for what I did.”

“We should have. But you know how humans are. They hate humans killing humans and when something non human kills one of them… It becomes an all out witch hunt and why is that?”

“Because humans are afraid of the unknown.” Muttered Apollyon quietly. “If they can’t conquer what they don’t know they kill it. They just have to kill it…”

“Human are much more violent than demons.” Said the Doppelganger. “They just want us to stop existing. The bastards could be forgiven if they want to eat our meat, but they don’t. They just want to see us bleed for their own insatiable bloodlust. Even the demons that get pleasure from their sadism are also drawn to do those things while satisfying other primal needs. It’s oddly libertaing, isn’t it?” 

Apollyon stood there for a moment as they contemplated this. “... Yes.”

***

Sebastian had no idea what was going on. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but he didn’t expect Yoba to do something like that to Apollyon, well he kind of did but that was beside the point. After the thorns cut deep into Apollyon’s body he was let go and he fell to the ground in a bloody heap completely unconscious.

“What the fuck?!” He quickly rushed to his boyfriend’s side and tried to wake him up. He was surprised to see a thicker black substance mixed in with his blood. He knew this place was going to be bad for him but this was too much. It was like the Void essence inside him was slowly being forced out of him. “What did you do?!”

“Please be calm. He is just in the middle of his first trial.” Yob sounded very amused by all this. “They have an allotted time to come out of this sleep I have put them under. If they awaken they pass. If they fail, their body will turn to dust and their existence shall cease to be on this and every plane of existence.”

“WHAT?!”

Yoba sighed a little and waved their hand creating a giant hourglass. They pointed to it with a delicate finger. “That is how much time he has left. So do not worry about it anymore human child.”

He knew he should have kept his mouth shut but he was kind of panicking at this point “I don’t give a fuck about the time! What the hell are you doing to him? You bring him out of this magic coma right now! Or I swear I’ll-”

The Wizard quickly put his hand over Sebastian’s mouth and quickly whispered into his ear. “Yoba is a god you idiot. Do you really think it’s so wise to make him angry. Also, what the heck could you do to him? You’re just a human. Not even I would be able to do anything to hurt or restrain them.”

Yoba just laughed in amusement. “Well this is quite entertaining. Human, I ask you, how could you of all things even think of harming me? You are tiny. Nothing more than a spec in my vision. There for a moment and then gone forever. I am your god. What is a mortal to a god?”

Sebastian knew this was all pointless. There was nothing he could do. He was used to being out of his element and having no power or real agency. If he had a computer these things would have been easier for him, but no. Against Yoba he was nothing, Yet he still couldn’t help but take a quick jab at them when the Wizard removed his hand.

“What’s a god to a non believer?”

Yoba continued to laugh. “You, I like you. Mortals have such good wit. And some of my angels were worried I gave you too much free thought.”

Sebastian didn’t know how he felt about that. He just turned his attention back to Apollyon. He had no idea what was happening to him. He just hoped that Apollyon would wake up.

***

By now Apollyon and his Doppelganger were just sitting around. Both seemed to be board with looking back at past memories. They were just content with existing in the dark. His Doppelganger ran their claws along the ground as they hummed to themselves.

“You know, most of our memories about humans are filled with nothing but misery. I find it hard to justify wanting to be a part of such a disgusting race of creatures.”

Apollyon shrugged. “I guess but… Our mum has always been good to us.” In front of him a small crystal appeared. On each surface a different memory of Elizabeth played. It made him smile. “She’s always been here for us…”

“One human out of billions is pretty shit and you know it.”

“Not just her. Sebastian too.” The crystal shimmered and the images of Elizabeth changed to images of Sebastian. “...” He reached out and gently held the crystal in his hands. “Sebastian… I love him so much.”

“Yet we’ve put him in so much danger.” Reminded the Doppelganger. They reached over and lightly tapped the crystal. It immediately started playing all the times Apollyon put his life in danger. It disturbed him and deeply upset him. Especially when he caught a glimpse of the memory where Sebastian stabbed him to death. “You’re never going to really forget that are you?”

“No… It really hurt. He was a real monster and he has so much darkness in him and it was all because of me.” It hurt to admit that. “I was so fucked up and damaged I insisted on calling Sebastian a god. My god.”

The Doppelganger nodded. “Our god. Heh, you still think he’s going to be ours if we aren’t a demon anymore?”

“He loved me before he knew I was a demon. He’ll love me after.” Apollyon was sure of that.

“Really?” They laughed at that. “I’m sorry but that’s a laugh. You know the truth of the matter don’t you? Human and human life is ultimately worthless no matter what we really think of them. That’s why we remember the worst aspects of them, isn’t it?”

“... That’s not true…”

The Doppelganger rolled their eyes. “Oh really now? Our so called peers have always hated us. Despised us. The only ones that liked us were for selfish reasons. The ones that wanted to date us wanted to piss off their parents, experiment with their sexuality, or fuck. Even Elizabeth loves us for selfish reasons. We’re a stand in for her dead child. She loves us because we look like them and that’s it.”

“W-well maybe when we were younger, but we’re an adult now.” Said Apollyon. These things that they were saying were messing with his head. “She loves us.”

“You know it isn’t like that. She just wants us alive because without us she’s failed as a mother. And you know what? Sebastian is with you because of selfish bullshit too.”

“Shut up…”

“He’s the only gay guy in town.” Said Doppelganger. They had a sadistic grin plastered across their face. “You’re the only guy in town that’ll fuck him. He’s such an antisocial fuck that he’ll never leave his basement to find a good fuck. You’re just convenient. You always have been and always will be.”

“Shut up! Sebastian isn’t like that! He isn’t that shallow!” He felt sick. Damn his Doppelganger. It was part of him and could easily drag up some of his deepest insecurities. Of course he didn’t trust humans that well. They had always been manipulative towards him, but he had to hold some hope that they weren’t all like that. He felt for sure Sebastian and Elizabeth weren’t like that, even though he did sometimes have unfounded doubts.

His Doppelganger leaned in close to him and giggled. “You know it’s true right? A demon can only look out for another demon. We can’t afford to let humans or any other species hold a special place in our hearts. Humans are worthless. It’s better to stay a demon.”

Apollyon was about to lash out at the Doppelganger, punch it right in the face but he didn’t. There was something in his words that made him realise something. He nodded a little and stood up, turning the crystal over in his hands. It no longer showed any memories.

“Oh, I see. So that’s how it is.”

“... What?” 

Apollyon smiled a little and dropped the crystal. As soon as it hit the ground the darkness shattered into a million pieces leaving only an empty white light. The Doppelganger looked thoroughly freaked out at the sudden change.

“What the fuck did you do?”

Apollyon shrugged. “The memories, the talking, the hatred towards humans… You want me to stay here away from reality. You want me to stay a demon forever, but I can’t. I made up my mind. I’m going to be human and you can’t stop me.” 

They started to walk away but the Doppelganger quickly followed them. “You can’t do this to us! You can’t just kill us off like that! We are one! I’ll always be with you! You’ll never get rid of me ever!”

“I know.” Apollyon looked at his Doppelganger and smiled. “You’re always going to be a part of me. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to forget that. But now we can move on together. You are me and I am you.” They extended their hand towards them. “It isn’t just me, it’s you too. We are going to become human. Something no demon has ever done before. We will still exist but in a slightly different form. Let’s take this journey, together.”

The Doppelganger looked hesitant for a moment at Apollyon’s hand. They seemed worried, maybe even a little fearful, but they took hold of Apollyon’s hand anyway. Despite any malicious words or attempts at manipulation they were still the same person and in the end they both wanted the same thing.

***

The hourglass was almost empty now and Apollyon still wasn’t waking up. It was causing Sebastian some extreme anxiety. He didn’t want Apollyon to suddenly vanish from the world. He knew he didn’t really have any proof that Yoba would do what they said, but being a god kind of gave them free reign over reality. It was scary.

“P-please stop this…” He stuttered quietly as he tightly gripped Apollyon’s hand. “Stop this. Just stop this. Stop this please. You’re going to kill him.”

Yoba seemed to take joy in Sebastian’s distress. “Death is but an unfortunate consequence for not completing an objective. It’s sad, but really what could you expect? They want something extraordinary so they must go through an extraordinary ordeal to make sure they deserve what they ask for.”

“They’re going to die! They aren’t going to wake up! You’re meant to be a kind god that helps humans! Why aren’t you willing to help me now when I-”

Yoba started laughing. “Help you? Why would I help humanity? I’m just a creator god. I make things and let them go on their way to do as they please. Anything more than that is made up nonsense by humans to attach their own motives too. I create and I watch That is all I do. No more, no less.”

Suddenly Apollyon sat up and gasped for air, hacking up some blood mixed with Void essence like phlegm. “Fuck… I don’t wanna do that again.” 

“Apollyon!” Sebastian hugged him tightly.

Yoba seemed surprised that Apollyon had woken up. “Oh. That was… Highly unlikely. Demons are so interesting.” They snapped their fingers and the hourglass vanished. “You’ve passed the first trial.”

Apollyon blinked slowly as he tried to process what Yoba just said. “Excuse me? My first trial? What is happening?”

The Wizard went over to him and tried to help him stand. “It seems as though Yoba is testing you to see if you are worthy of becoming human.”

“... Of course.” This was just what he needed. “How many trials do I have to do anyway?”

“Just three.” Said Yoba. “You have three trials to complete before I grant you your wish to become human… I must say I am impressed that you were able to look past the abuse of the selfish humans in your life to wake back up. Most would have just given up.”

“... Right.” Apollyon sighed a little. “Time for the next trial?” 

Yoba hummed happily. “But of course. On to the next trail. Let’s see if a demon can overcome this one.”


	84. Yoba's mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2019 is better for everyone because damn 2018 has sucked a fat one. Anyway, kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Before time there was only the endless golden light. The light called out to itself… ‘Yoba’. Yoba wanted more. Yoba swirled the golden light into a vortex. Yoba swirled and swirled until a hole formed in the eye of the vortex. From this hole sprung a seed. Yoba smoothed the golden light. Yoba smoothed and smoothed, and the light became soil. Into the soil, Yoba planted the seed. The seed sprouted, and behold! A vine sprung skyward, twisting and probing, casting a writhing shadow onto the golden void. After 11 days, the vine bore fruit. Yoba, with knowing wisdom, peeled the tough skin off the fruit and saw that the world was inside. And do that is how the world came to be.

At least that was how the book of Yoba went. That’s how Yoba had said it so it had to be true, right? That was the thing about literature both fiction and nonfiction. The winners wrote it. It didn’t matter how it really went down as long as everyone else believed it.

Now that wasn’t to say that passage from the book of Yoba wasn’t all a lie. They just embellished a few things to make themselves look better in the eyes of the creatures they gave free will. How they created the world was the same in writing as it was in memory, though where they had come from was slightly different.

They themselves didn’t find themselves unique in a way that made them completely different from the others that existed with them during the beginning. They just happened to think beyond the moment and saw what could be done. They had the ability and mindset to see beyond today. They could see into the next day and the next.

When they saw what they could accomplish they realised that they were beyond the understanding of their kin, and so Yoba left to a world of light. It wasn’t enough for them. They weren’t satisfied. They didn’t understand why this was so they just created and created, and created some more. It made them feel whole when they created.

But like always things never went according to what they wanted. Their kin just had to dirty everything with their disgusting hands. They had to make everything filthy and wrong. They couldn’t just keep to themselves and let Yoba have this one thing. Just this one thing that wasn’t there’s to wreck. 

Why couldn’t they just leave them alone? Why were they like this? They just didn’t understand. They were the ones that made them their enemy. They just wanted to be alone. Why did they think they could destroy the dirty the things they created? Yoba made them, only Yoba could destroy them. Why couldn’t they understand that? Why? 

They were the ones that became the enemy. They broke their things. They were the evil ones. They were breaking Yoba’s playthings. They were demons. Their kin were nothing but demons. Just demons that wanted to ruin everything. They were never satisfied with what they had. They had to just keep turning up and messing up their life.

Now here was this thing. Some lowlife demon that wormed their way into their domain and why? Why would a demon come here? To ask for their help? To ask them to grant a wish? The audacity of it all. Now they would have to be nice and let this demon do these trials. Why did they have to be nice anyway? They were a god. They could just wipe them out and leave it at that. 

However they had people willing to say they were a good person. Even a Junimo. A damn Junimo was on their side. This was enough to get Yoba interested in them. They didn’t have the mindset that maybe this demon was a good person. They were more interested in how this demon was able to con these witnesses.

The first trial was meant to finish them off in one go, but somehow they had passed. That surprised them a lot. They had just assumed that the demon would get consumed by their own emotions and self doubts to the point where they wouldn’t be able to pull themselves out of despair.

So they would continue to test them. They had two more ways to see if this thing really was worthy of having their wish granted. If they failed they would be more than happy to end their existence. No, not just existence, from space and time too when they failed. Then they would reprimand the witnesses for wasting their time and send them on their way.

They watched from their throne as Apollyon woke back up and watched the interaction between them and this human that claimed they were his lover. They did seem concerned for one another. But it seemed kind of superficial to them.

Nevertheless the first trial was over and they had already decided what the next trail would be. With a wave of their hand a perfect circle appeared on the ground and the white marble floor rose up into the sky.

They watched in amusement as the humans and demon looked around in confusion. No doubt they were wondering if they were inside or outside or what was going on. They did enter through a door and now they were ascending above the clouds back outside.

Elder Junimo squeaked a little in excitement as did the Green Junimo on their head. Green looked up at them and waved. “Yoba! Yoba! Yoba!”

“Yes little one?”

“Where are we going? What’s the next trail? Why did you do that thing to knock the Hero out?”

“You have many thoughts on your mind small one.” Muttered Yoba. They didn’t like being questioned by a Junimo, but they could only blame themselves for that one. They made the Junimos to be curious and inquisitive little spirits. “We are going to the tree where all life has come from.”

Green and Elder squeaked with excitement and headed over to the trio to tell them what was happening. Watching their interactions were strange to them. Oh well, it didn’t matter. In the end the demon would fail their test. As far as they were concerned if Apollyon failed just one of their tests they wouldn’t be allowed to have their wish granted. They could grant some form of grace to humans, but not to demons. Demons ruined everything. Every last one of them were a blight that they didn’t want in their domain.

***

Sebastian had decided long ago that he needed to stop thinking about things in terms of human logic. They were flying on a marble disc, into the sky, with a wizard, a demon, two Junimos and Yoba… Yeah this was like some crazy, messed up dream.

Elder walked over to them and happily waved their arms. “We’re going to the tree! We’re going to the tree!”

“What tree?” Asked Sebastian.

Green jumped off of Elder and ran over to them making very excited gestures. “Da twee! Da twee! Da twee! Da twee dat birthed da world.” They did a happy little spin at the end. “Twee! Twee! Twee!”

Apollyon frowned a little as he scratched at his skin. It was still flaking off in thin sheets. It was pretty gross. This seemed like a pretty extreme reaction to being in the Yoba plane. At least that’s what Sebastian thought. Hopefully things would be over soon and Apollyon would be better soon.

“I don’t get it.” He said. “What’s so important about this tree?”

The Junimo’s looked shocked that Apollyon didn’t know. Sebastian was about to answer her but the Wizard cut in. “The World tree is the tree that created our world.” He said. “Yoba planted the seed, the tree grew, and the fruit from that tree was what our world was contained in.”

Apollyon blinked slowly. “I see…” they didn’t seem too impressed and to be honest neither did Sebastian when he heard of it when he was little.

He sighed a little and looked out at where they were going. They had passed over a huge mountain, the farmlands continued to stretch out beneath them. It was amazing how everything seemed to be dedicated for farming. Was the whole Yoba plane just farms? He didn’t know for sure.

In the distance, getting ever closer Sebastian could see some large tree being held up by about a dozen of the colossal angels. Its roots twisted and turned around them, making them appear like statues. It was oddly beautiful in a foreboding kind of way.

He reached out and held Apollyon’s hand. “... Are you okay?”

Apollyon smiled a little at him and nervously squeezed his hand. “Yeah, I’m okay. Kind of… Just a little nervous about this kind of stuff… But you know what? If it’s all like when I was stuck in my mind it’ll be easy.”

“What happened when you blacked out anyway?”

“My slightly more demonic side tried to convince me humans weren’t worth anything and wanted me to agree with that way of thinking.”

“Oh… So if you agreed you’d still be stuck there?”

“I guess so.”

Sebastian didn’t know if he should tell Apollyon that Yoba was planning to wipe him out from existence if he had failed. There wasn’t much he could do anyway. He was just a human. He couldn't even cast magic like the Wizard. Maybe he should have asked Elizabeth to come and teach him how to cast magic.

He felt like just someone that was there. He was just observing it all. He didn’t know if he was starting to feel sick if it was because he was completely useless in this situation or if he needed to smoke. He took his vape out and started to vape.

Seconds later there was a very big shadow behind him. “What are you doing?”

Sebastian nearly inhaled the actual vape pen and looked up to see Elder Junimo standing over him. “... Smoking?”

“... Smoking is bad.”

Fantastic, now he was going to get a lecture on smoking from a Junimo. “I know but-”

“Smoke is bad because that means there is a fire. Fires are bad because pretty much everything burns when there is a fire. Fire’s bad… Though there are some places that just keep catching fire so Yoba had to make seeds that only work because of fire.”

“... So you don’t want me to smoke because I could catch fire?”

“Yes.”

“This isn’t smoke. It’s water vapor.”

Elder blinked and looked closely at the vape pen in Sebastian’s hand. “... Oh, okay. My mistake. Carry on.” They waddled back over to Yoba, leaving Sebastian rather confused.

“What just happened?”

Apollyon shrugged. “Apparently you’re going to set yourself on fire with a vape.”

“... Alright.” Sebastian stood there and continued to vape. It made him feel a little bit better, but not really. He was still useless. He was informed that he just needed to say some words to Yoba and that would be it. Now he’s here just sitting on the sidelines while Apollyon had to do some dangerous things just to become human. Was it worth it?

Very soon they were at the base of the tree and Yoba clapped their hands to get their attention. “Okay, time for the next trail demon.”

Apollyon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. What do I have to do now?”

Yoba pointed to the base of the tree. “You are to climb the tree and meet us at the top. Be warned, this tree is the tree that I grew to create the world. It has a strong defence mechanism that viciously attacks those who they deem threats.”

“... Brilliant.”

Yoba snapped their fingers and the small bit of marble that Apollyon was standing on broke away, and dumped Apollyon on the tangled roots. It wasn’t gentle either. It was sudden and from a slight height.

“Are you okay?!” Called Sebastian.

Apollyon dusted himself off and gave Sebastian a smile and a thumbs up. “I’m good. See you at the top. Shouldn’t take too long.” The disc moved up towards the top, and Sebastian watched Apollyon stare at the tree in an effort to figure out how to best tackle this.

Sebastian nervously bit his bottom lip. “What will happen if he fails this trial?”

“Well it’s quite simple really.” Said Yoba. “If they fail to reach the top the tree will consume them, break them down to their atoms and absorb them. It has been a while since something with such high Void essence has given the tree nourishment.... It would mae for a very interesting world if that’s the case.” 

At this point Yoba seemed to be musing to themselves. Not that it really mattered that much to Sebastian. Apart from his anxiety about Apollyon possibly getting killed again, he had to figure out how he felt about Yoba. Yoba was a god. The god. His god. The one that made his world and everything in it. He needed some answers.

Against his better judgement he walked over to Yoba. He remembered to be polite and bowed before addressing them. “Yoba, can I ask you some questions?”

Yoba looked down at them, though it was hard to tell. Yoba was still a ball of folded wings with at least two arms coming out of it at the moment. “Yes, I can imagine you do. What questions would you have? What is the meaning of life? Why is your life so unfair? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why didn’t you get the shiny thing you wanted so much? Why so much sickness and disease? Are these any of your questions?”

“... I um… Er…”

Yoba sighed and gently started to groom their feathers. From within their wings several more arms appeared to help with this process. “Child of man, the simple and most general answer for all of this is that I am a creator god. I create things and set them in motion. The concept of good and evil, what’s fair and isn’t fair, health and disease… Those are all things you decide. Why should the bacteria that makes ringworm or the parasite that eats flesh not deserve to exist any less than you?”

“...”

“That’s what I thought. Child of man, you purpose is simply to exist as is the purpose of all things. Isn’t being alive and existing in a world enough for you? Do you really need a higher purpose.”

Sebastian sighed a little. “Honestly for a long time I didn’t really believe in you and kind of just reasoned existing for the sake of existing was a fine enough reason to live.”

“... Oh.”

“Um, with that out of the way I have two questions. In the book of Yoba some people point out passages where you condemn anyone who doesn’t worship you, and in some others people point to you saying you hate homosexuals…”

Yoba continued to groom their feathers as they thought about what Sebastian just said. “Well, I personally don’t care who or what humans worship. I made you, I own you. I know who you belong to.”

That wasn’t the answer Sebastian was expecting to hear. “Huh…”

“As for the other one, do you have any idea how many animals I made gay? Seriously, figure it out. It’s all part of population control on my part. Humans eat and drink a lot of stuff and breed like crazy. A slight mistake when it came to my design for humans, like period pains and having testicles on the outside… But in my defence it was a rush job and I really needed a lot of humans… In retrospect I probably should have made it easier for you to have multiple births. Where did this come from that I hated one sexuality that I designed? I am both and neither.”

“Some passage about men not laying with men and women not laying with women?” Sebastian was starting to feel like they opened a can or worms here.

Yoba made an exasperated sigh as they sunk into their chair. “I give human intelligence way too much credit… That whole passage was meant to be poetic and literally mean boys shouldn’t treat their male partners like women and women shouldn’t treat their female partners like men because you both have slightly different biological needs and what not…” They started to grumble to themselves. “Next time no poetry. Humans are so damn stupid… In fact, no humans next time. Too damn stupid to pull their heads out of their asses…”

Sebastian took that as his cue to make a hasty retreat. Yoba was really weird and not what he expected at all. He still needed to think about what he thought about them. In all honesty he felt so weird about all this. Was Yoba really good or were they uncaring? He had no idea. He should have grabbed a few more vape cartridges before he came here.


	85. Second trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

This tree was damn huge. Huger than huge. It was like a damn mountain. Apollyon had no idea how he was going to climb up a tree this big in a reasonable amount of time. He sighed and started climbing up as best he could. It sure as hell wasn’t easy. The bark was surprisingly slippery and made him feel like he was to slide down it it he misstepped even for a split second.

“... Fuck it.” He dug his nails in as deeply as he could into the bark and ripped his nails out. He swore up a storm but it had the effect he was after. His flimsy human nails were gone and thicker, sharper claws painfully took their place.

With these he was more easily able to get a grip and climb the tree. He had no idea what Yoba wanted him to do this. Climbing a tree wasn’t the most challenging thing in the world. Sure he was going to be dead tired by the end of it but it wasn’t the worst thing Yoba could have challenged him to do.

Suddenly he dug his claws into the tree and felt a burning sensation. He quickly pulled his hand away and to his horror he saw some kind of golden sap leaking out. It was golden and reminded him way too much of Solar essence. He wouldn’t have been surprised if this tree was full of it. The tree sap might as well have been made of acid.

Gritting his teeth, Apollyon dug his claws in and did his best to climb as high as he could as fast as he could. He didn’t want to burn is hands off if he could help it, but really, it was hard to do. Eventually he was able to make it to some small branch jutting out to the side. He sighed a little and took a moment to catch his breath.

He took a moment to look down at his hands and wasn’t surprised to see that they had gotten pretty badly burnt. It was like a chemical burn slowly eating its way up his fingers. “Fucking bastard…” Apollyon started rip his shirt into strips and bandage himself up. He didn’t know what it was going to do for him. His fingers were still slowly getting eaten away by this sticky tree sap.

He sighed and looked up. He hadn’t gotten up to the main canopy. Heck, this branch didn’t even have any leaves on it at all. When he looked down it didn’t look like he had made much headway either. This was going to take him hours.

Apollyon sighed a little and started climbing again. So what if the tree sap was going to melt his hands away? Things might be easier when he got closer to the top where more branches were. He’d be able to try swinging and jumping instead. He’d get less sap on himself that way.

After a few minutes he got into a rhythm and felt like he was making good time. He zoned out a little and just let himself go. Just one claw in front of the other. One two. One two. One two. Suddenly something snagged his ankle and almost made him fall. 

He dug his claws into the tree for some kind of stability and caused a small river to flow out down his arms. “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” He did his best to wipe the sap off himself and back onto the tree as best he could. Once the burning sensation wasn’t as bad as it could have been, he looked down at what snagged him. Much to his surprise it was some small twisted bit of bark? Maybe? It was hard to tell. It looked like a vine but at the same time it was a branch?

Apollyon decided his time would be best spent climbing and thinking. Firstly, did the tree just grab him? Probably. Secondly, what the hell kind of tree was all weird and ropy like this? The only thing that really came to his mind, and that was one of those weird strangler fig trees. Okay, if that was what it was then he felt a little better about climbing this weird tree. The world tree. He just had to avoid any random grabby branch vine things. It wasn’t so bad.

***

Sebastian was still anxious. He knew he shouldn’t be anxious but he was anxious. Apollyon was going to be fine. He’d see him in a little bit. It was a very tall tree. It would take him a few hours to get up here. He was starting to feel a little sick, and he’d almost used up all of his vape cartridge. Now his anxiety was going through the roof.

Green waddled up to Sebastian and raised their arms. “Pip! Pip! Pip!”

“... You want me to pick you up?”

“Pip!” They wiggled their arm sticks at him.

Sebastian hesitated for a moment, but picked them up anyway. “Why can’t I understand you when I can understand that huge gold Junimo?”

Green shrugged. “Pip.” They then proceeded to climb up Sebastian’s arm and decided to sit on his head. “Pip! Pip! Breeeeeeeeee!”

“Right… You do you I guess.”

“How are you going Sebastian?” Asked the Wizard. “I can understand you’re extremely anxious at this point…”

“You don’t know the half of it.” He muttered. “I just thought Yoba would hear us out and then snap their fingers and then bam, Apollyon would be human and we’d be out of here. Now we’re here and Apollyon’s risking his life, and I’m not even sure Yoba is a good person, god, thing. So now not only am I freaking out because of my boyfriend, I’m having a mild existential crisis and I have Junimo on my head.”

“Breeeeeeeee!”

The Wizard nodded a little. “I see… Well there isn’t much we can do now considering our position… Come and sit with me.” He sat in a half lotus pose on the floor and waited for Sebastian to join him. He hesitated a little but he joined the Wizard and stared out at the vast Yoba plane.

“What now?”

“Take a moment to to take a few slow deep breaths.” Said the Wizard. “Every time you breath out try and let your mind go blank. All those things that your worried about are just exiting your body with every breath.”

“... Really? Yoga?”

“Yes. I find it helps in matters like this. Why do you think I’ve been quiet for so long?” Asked the Wizard. “I would be freaking out if I hadn’t mastered this.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. So just try it. The best way you can help Apollyon now is by staying calm and keeping a clear head.”

Sebastian nodded a little and accidentally knocked Green off their head. “Sorry.” Green huffed a little and waddled away. “I think I made them mad… Did I make them mad?”

The Wizard sighed and closed their eyes. “No talking now. Just breathing in positivity and expelling negativity. You must do this in silence. Okay?”

“Okay?”

“What did I just say about talking?”

“...”

“Good.”

***

It felt like forever, but Apollyon had finally managed to make it up to the bottom part of canopy and was taking another small breather on a branch. By now he had used most of his shirt and one leg of his pants to bandage up his burnt flesh. By the end of this he was going to end up being covered in bandages and running around in his underwear.

“Fuck this stupid tree… Fuck it. Fuck this tree. Fuck it with a chainsaw… Yoba better turn me into of of those humans that are like… double jointed or have crazy high metabolisms, or stronger than average. Something!”

He walked along the branch to try and see what ones he could easily jump to and grab. There were a few, but there didn’t seem to be a clear path. The translucent and iridescent giant leaves of the tree made it hard to see. But he didn’t have much of a choice. He crouched down and lept to the next branch. He only just managed to grab hold of it. If he’d missed he would have been a very gross looking splat at the base of the tree.

That wasn’t a pleasant thought. Dying on impact wasn’t something he liked to think about. Every few branches had had to stop and catch his breath. He knew he was getting tired very quickly. Way faster than he probably should have been. He blamed being in the Yoba plane for that. As he sat on the branch and looked around he noticed that there was some weird growth on the tree not too far away from him.

Against his better judgement Apollyon walked over to have a look. It looked a little like a leathery green pod about the size of a cow. He carefully ran his hand over it. It felt warm. Was this one of the fruits starting to grow on the tree? Inside was there a world? Did their world come from a fruit like this? It made him wonder how many more worlds Yoba had made and how long each world fruit took to grow. 

With that being the case it made him wonder how Yoba viewed humans in general. If they didn’t like one world they could always start again with a new one with new people and new creations. It made him question asking anything from them. Would Yoba even hold up their end of the deal if they did what they wanted? He had no idea. Even if he failed at least he could say he tried. In the end wasn’t that enough? That he tried? It had to. It had to be enough.

The sounds of leaves rustling made him look up. Sitting in some of the branches above him were what most humans would consider angels. Humanoid creatures with Wings on their backs. Though if Apollyon was completely honest they looked more like harpies made of porcelain wearing masquerade masks. Very creepy. They were quietly talking amongst themselves.

“What is this? A demon climbing the world tree?”

“How strange.”

“How vulgar.”

“Does Yoba know of this?”

“How did this thing get in here anyway?”

“It’s bleeding Void essence everywhere.”

“We should bring some Gar-dinners over to clean this mess.”

Apollyon sighed a little. “Hey, I’m not trying to do anything bad here. Yoba told me to climb it and meet them at the top. Back off!”

The angels continued to stare at Apollyon while they talked amongst themselves. “Yoba told them to?”

“Why would they do that?”

“They could hurt the tree.”

“We can’t have that.”

“That would be bad.”

“Will Yoba get mad of we interfere?”

“If they harm the tree we should.”

Apollyon sighed a little and continued to climb. He didn’t need to hear these things arguing if they should throw him out of the tree or not. As long as they just watched he didn’t care. He just wanted this to be over with already. He felt like he was making good time. However when he next stopped to catch his breath he noticed something sinister.

The angels that were once just passively watching him pass by were now actively scratching and pulling up bark to make the sap run out. They were actively trying to stop him how and he had no idea why. Well he did, but at the same time it was a real dick move. Now he had to avoid touching that stuff while moving up the tree. Fantastic.

However it was practically becoming impossible to avoid. The sap easily dripped down and made his timing when it came to jumping very important. The last thing he needed was a huge glob of sap strike him while mid jump.

He lined himself up for the perfect jump but when he did out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the angels grab a handful of sap and threw it at him. He had no way of avoiding it and had to brace for impact. It hit his side, burning a hole in the side of his chest.

“F-FUCK!” He missed the branch he was aiming for and ended up hitting his arm knee against another branch on the way down. “FUCK!” After free falling for few seconds he landed on his back with a sickening crack on a lower branch. “Fuck…”

He was swearing a lot more than he probably should have, but damn this day fucking sucked. Apollyon attempted to move, but found he couldn’t. More than likely he had broken his back and paralyzed himself. He was probably going to be like this for a while until he healed. If he healed. He still wasn’t too sure how long it would take for him to heal in the Yoba plane. 

Some of the angels landed by him and started to poke him while they decided what to do with what they assumed was his dead body.

“What now?”

“Melt it?”

“Give it to the Gar-dinners?”

“Let’s feed it to the world tree. It needs a little bit of Void essence to grow healthy.”

“Good idea. Good idea.”

They picked up Apollyon and walked to the tree trunk. Some of them gently pressed their hands against the bark and it parted as easily as drawing back a curtain. Unable to move or say anything, Apollyon could only watch as they threw him inside and he fell again. It looked like he was going to die on impact either way. At least this way it wasn’t going to be as messy as hitting the ground outside.

Eventually he hit some intertwined vines that laced around the inside of it like webs. He landed in a strange position that probably would have hurt if he could feel it. Now he had to figure out how he was going to get out of the middle of the world tree without getting melted by the tree sap.

He wiggled a little, not having much in the way of fine motor functions just yet. “...” He wiggled with a little more and he slipped sideways falling deeper into the tree. Not exactly what he wanted, but it was happening. He stopped abruptly when a free standing branch impaled his side with an almost sickening squelch.

A sickening gurgle escaped his lips along with some blood. Maybe he punctured his lung? He wasn’t sure. A lot of internal organs got punctured. Maybe this was the end? Maybe this was what was meant to happen? The idea was absurd of course. There was no way in hell he was going to give up so easily. He wriggled a little more, getting a slight twitch in his arms and legs. So that was something.

As he tried to wriggle free he started to hear the groaning and creaking of wood. Suddenly the vine he was impaled on wrapped around him and violently yanked him down to what he could only assume was the heart of the tree. It looked like a series of glowing spheres concealed within some kind of yellow jell.

“Why are you here?” Asked a rather feminine voice.

Apollyon coughed and spat out some blood as he attempted to talk. It came out horse and ragged. “Some angel’s dropped me in here. I kind of want to get to the top.”

The heart of the tree pulsated slightly as they seemed to contemplate what they had been told. “... So you were the one that was climbing me? I prefer to be left alone. The angels that Yoba made to tend to me are fine and all, but I’d just prefer solitude. That was the reason that I am here in the first place.”

Apollyon nodded a little and started to cringe when he felt himself slide just a little further down the vine that was still skewering his body. “F-fuck… Help? Please?” The vine violently flicked him off and onto another branch. Apollyon groaned and grabbed his side. He had quite a huge hole in himself now. If he was a human he would have died of shock long ago. At least that seemed to have snapped his spine back into place and cured his paralysis. “Ow…” 

He watched his blood ooze down the branch and drip into the depths of tree. It was kind of creepy. This was just made even worse by the unsettling happy aura the tree was giving off. Considering trees fed off dead things he wasn’t that surprised that the tree seemed to be happy with his blood.

“You know, it hurt quite a lot having you claw into me.”

“Yeah, I get that. I just didn’t you know… know you were a sentient thing. Kind of just assumed you were a tree.”

“All life has a level of sentience that I would assume you, a farmer, would know of.”

Apollyon was surprised. The tree called him a farmer. “Um I...”

“Are you wondering why I called you a farmer?” They asked. “Because that is what you are. Yoba takes credit for making the whole world but he is like you, a farmer. Can a farmer grow trees without the aid of seeds? Can they collect eggs without birds? Wool without sheep? No. If anything I am the true god of the world. Like all sentient beings they have become arrogant. Even if one day Yoba were to perish I will still create world fruit. Every world will continue on without them.”

Apollyon nodded a little, not expecting to hear a tree talk about Yoba being a proud asshole. “I see… No offence but um, what does this have to do with me? Not that this isn’t interesting and all but you know… I have a trial to finish and what not… And I have a hole in me.”

“I know.” The vines within the tree started to slowly move and shit around him. “So your wish it to become human so you can be with the one you love, correct?”

“Yeah… Can you do it? You kind of claimed to be more powerful than Yoba so like, you know…”

“I’m afraid that is impossible for me.” Said the tree. “I only create worlds from the food Yoba and their angels feed me. Yoba has the power to shape reality to their will with the materials I provide.” They were quiet for a moment. “... Apollyon, do you truly wish to become human to live a life with Sebastian? To forsake all that you are and have known for love or just to spite Yoba?”

Apollyon was a little confused by the question. “I um… Yeah, love is the main thing but if I can spit in Yoba’s face while doing it I’m all for it.”

“... Then I shall help you complete your trial. But I have a warning for you before you go about Yoba.”

“Yeah?”

“Yoba is very proud and vain. They do not like being bested. If there are more trials ahead of you, you can bet they won’t play fair and use clever words and phrases to turn the tables in their favour. They will give you what you want if you defeat them, but it will not be easy.”

“Huh, okay. Kind of figured as much. They don’t like demons.”

“I wish you the best of luck.” Suddenly something that looked like a giant flower bud rose up from the depths of the tree and slowly started to open like a giant beast’s maw. “Tell Yoba I said hi.”

“... Wait, is that thing gonna? OH FUCK NO! I DON’T WANNA DO TH- !” Before Apollyon could further voice his displeasure at this idea, the flower bud fully engulfed him.


	86. Purification

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The yoga that the Wizard was telling him to do wasn’t doing much for Sebastian. He had been trying but no. It wasn’t working very well. His breathing was relatively normal, but he was still a nervous wreck. Anything could be happening to Apollyon at the moment. Anything. He could be dead right now, but if he was dead then he wouldn’t remember Apollyon anymore, right? He was developing a stress headache.

Suddenly a giant flower bud sprouted out of the tree and towered above the mabel platform. Everyone apart from Yoba at least seemed a little surprised by this suddenly appearing. “Looks like Apollyon failed.” Said Yoba. “The only reason it would appear would be to spit out their bones and-” The flower bud opened up and dropped a nectar covered Apollyon onto the marble floor before quickly retreating. “Oh…”

Apollyon sat up and attempted to wipe himself clean. “Is it over yet? Am I done? What happened?”

The Wizard walked over to him and waved his hand, cleaning off the nectar. “Well it look like you passed… but are you okay? You look a little… You have a hole in your side.”

Apollyon looked down and put his hand over the wound. “Yeah… What do you expect? I’m in the Yoba plane. I’m lucky I didn’t get stabbed through the eye again!” He looked up at Yoba. “By the way, the tree says hi, also I think they hate you.”

Yoba hummed a little at that revelation. “Hmm, I thought they were sleeping… My mistake. Well once again you’ve passed your trial. Congratulations are in order I guess.” They clapped for him, but they seemed to mean it sarcastically.

Apollyon rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Sebastian. “You okay?”

“Yeah…” He went to Apollyon’s side and hugged him. He didn’t care if he got blood or Void essence or whatever was leaking out of Apollyon’s wound. “Are you okay? I mean, I know you’re not but still… I just… and…” His headache was slowly becoming a dull throbbing sensation behind his eyes. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“... Are you okay? You look like you’re going to be sick.”

It was just like Apollyon to ignore his own injuries just to take care of him. Sebastian was fine, he was just getting a migraine from being so stressed. “I’ll be fine. You’re the one with a hole in your body.”

“It’s already shrunk down to a third of its original size. No big deal.” He kissed Sebastian’s cheek and smiled softly. “Two trials down, one to go. Hopefully it’ll be pretty easy compared to everything else.”

“Yeah…” Sebastian stumbled a little and quickly held onto Apollyon’s arms for support.

“Hey easy now love…” Apollyon slowly lowered Sebastian down to the ground. “Just sit down for a bit and take it easy. You’re looking worse than I do, and I’ve been burnt, skewered, and eaten by a giant flower.”

“I guess…” Sebastian closed his eyes and tilted his head back. His migrain was getting worse. “Ergh…”

The Wizard went over to him and lightly touched his forehead. “You’re burning up…”

“So I’m dying too?” Asked Sebastian. “Fantastic…”

Yoba chuckled a little at Sebastian’s nihilism. “You aren’t dying. You just feel ill because you’ve absorbed too much Void essence because you were exposed to that thing. Humans don’t have the natural ability to filter it out. You’re like a sponge. The Solar essence that permeates this plane of existence is reacting poorly to your body, just like the demon.” The pointed acisingly at Apollyon but spoke with sickening delight. “Sebastian, you mate, your lover, has been poisoned because of your very existence. Every touch both innocent and intimate has slowly been poisoning him and now that he’s here his body is slowly destroying itself!” 

Elder looked up at Yoba and put their hands on their hips. “Yoba, he can always be cleansed to get better…”

They sighed a little in annoyance. Obviously they seemed to want to scare them a little. “Well that is true. Okay fine.” They clapped their hands and several more Junimo’s appeared. They waved at Elder and Green before quickly turning their attention to Yoba. “Junimo’s please take this human to the ponds to purify themselves… and do not run away with their clothes this time. I do not need another human freaking out that their reproductive bits are showing.”

The Junimos saluted Yoba and quickly ran over to Sebastian making many happy squeaking sounds. They circled him and quickly started to chant. Sebastian quickly became worried. “H-hey! Don’t just move me around!”

“Where are you taking him?” Questioned Apollyon. “Wherever he goes I go to!”

Yoba laughed a little. “Nope.”

Suddenly there was a flash of light and Sebastian was no longer on the marble disc. He was on the edge of some pond. He quickly looked up and strained his eyes to see if there was anyway he could see where Yoba was from the ground. He could not.

“What the hell?” He looked around a little. The pond was situated on a mountain plateau surrounded by salmonberry bushes. The water in the pond was crystal clear and looked rather inviting. “... Huh, alright?” Suddenly the Junimos started to tug at Sebastian’s clothes. “HEY! NO!” 

“PIP!” Squealed the Junimos in retaliation. “PIP PIP BREEEEEEEE!!!”

“Fuck off and leave me and my clothes alone you little perverts!”

A light giggle filled the air as a strange fish-like creature fluttered down from the sky. It looked like one of those fighting fish, but a lot more flowy. “Now what are you silly Junimos doing with a human?”

One of the Junimos waved at them and started squeaking and pointing at Sebastian while tugging at his clothes. “PIP!”

They laughed a little and looked at Sebastian. “You do know that they are just trying to help you, right? Yoba told them to take you here to purify you. Also, they wish to know what a pervert is.”

Sebastian went bright red and pushed the Junimos away. His migraine was getting worse and worse by the second. “Yoba, I hate these things…”

The weird fish laughed a little and tried to shoo the Junimos away. “Now, now you sillies. Humans do not like removing their clothes in front of other living beings besides their fated mates. Now off with you. As a Caeli-aqua I have jurisdiction over air and water. Please return to your duties.”

The Junimos pouted and waved their arms. “SQUEE! PIP! PIP! BREEE SQUEE!”

The Caeli-aqua seemed surprised for a moment, but nodded. “I see. I shall take care of it.” The Junimos nodded and quickly waddled off into the bushes.

Sebastian sighed in relief. Their squeaking felt like tiny nails getting driven into his skull. “Thanks… I just want to head back to where my boyfriend is…”

“Oh no. I can’t allow that right now. No, no, no.” Said the angel. “Yoba wants you to purify yourself so purify you shall. Remove your garments and enter the water.” Noticing his reluctance the angel sighed. “Human man, there have been several others who have come here to cleans themselves from their impurities. There is nothing us angels have not seen of men and woman. Though you might feel shame you should remember, yours is the only species that is disgusted with yourself enough to hide your bodies from the rest of the world.”

“...” Sebastian had no idea if he should be ashamed, upset, or angry. His head was hurting way too much. Was there any real point in arguing anymore? “Fine. Whatever… Just turn around.”

The angel obliged and Sebastian quickly stripped down to his underwear before getting into the water. There was no way he was going to get completely naked. Much to his surprise his headache slowly seemed to melt away. Then again this was the Yoba plane and full of weird magic so who knows? It was just easier for him to accept weird shit was just happening for the sake of weird shit now.

The Caeli-aqua made a happy sound and fluttered over the pond, dipping their fins into the water. “Feels good doesn't it? That’s the power of the Yoba plane. The longer one stays here the more purified they become. The pain you feel is the Void essence trying hard to cling to your body but being forcibly removed.”

“Huh… So how long should I stay in here? I heard humans need some Void essence in them.”

The angel nodded a little. “Well yes. Arguably one of Yoba’s best and worst decisions. Best because you were able to make complex decisions on your own without direct orders from Yoba, but it came at the cost of your purity. Only pure beings can live in the Yoba plane and so humanity as a whole are just failed angels.”

Failed angels? He hadn’t thought about it that way. The water was nice and warm against his skin. It made him feel kind of sleepy. “Huh, is that so?” His eyelids were starting to feel heavy. “Humans are just failed angels? What were we made to do?” He readjusted himself when he felt himself sinking down into the water. “The book of Yoba says we’re meant to look after the earth or something.”

The Caeli-aqua listlessly drifted over towards him. “That’s just a consequence of Yoba not wanting to erase that world and start a new with another. Your true purpose was much grander than that. Humans performed a function that no other angel could and do you know why? Because angels do not have any Void essence in them. Even the Gar-dinner’s filter it out of themselves within minutes of eating it. The less Void essence a being has in them the more likely they are to follow the orders and will of Yoba. That’s actually how Yoba and Void magic works; manipulating the essence within all things to your will.”

All of this was kind of going over Sebastian’s head. He was starting to feel really tired now. He could hardly pull himself out of the water. “Hmm?”

Then angel was inches in front of their face now. “Do you want to know what a human’s original purpose was? Do you want to know? Because you’re about to find out.”

***

Yoba watched in amusement as Apollyon was attempting to jump off the platform while the Wizard was holding them back. “Don’t be stupid!” They said. “You don’t even know where they are right now!”

Apollyon squirmed and tried to free himself. “Damn right I don’t know where he is right now! Why do you think I’m stressing out so much?! Let me go damn it!”

Yoba chuckled a little. The demon’s acting was a little over the top but it was entertaining the way they acted like they actually cared. But now wasn’t the time to upset them. They still had plans for the final trial. The demon would be less likely to play along if they were overly upset.

“Calm yourself. Your companion is just bathing in the purifying waters right now. Like I said, their illness was because of excess Void essence within their body being purged my the Solar essence here.” They sounded rather smug. “Magic users like the Wizard here can balance it out to an extent, but normal humans can find it… dangerous? Poisonous? However you want to put it, it’s not good and honestly? You have no one to blame but yourself for it.”

Apollyon looked like he wanted to snap and say something, but they held their tongue. “Whatever… Let’s just get this last trial over with already. This is the last one, right?”

Yoba nodded and the disc started to move away from the world tree towards some other destination. “That is correct. This trail is also the most important one of all so if I were you I would try very hard to pass this. It doesn’t matter if you pass two out of three trials. If you mess up just one you might as well have failed them all.”

Apollyon rolled their eyes. “Yeah, that seems totally fair.”

“Life isn’t fair.” Said Yoba sternly. “Do you really think I actually care about the divine judgment humans care about? Some things you deem evil and vile I have no problem with. Other things that I may judge humans on you might think is stupid and abstract. Maybe I care what colours you wear? Maybe I care about how long you sleep? Maybe I care that you’re slowly killing the planet I let you take care of? Life isn’t fair. There will always be someone above you who will make the rules both said and unsaid you will follow.”

“... Whatever…”

Yoba shrugged and relaxed in their chair as they continued onward. They knew exactly what they were going to do for the final trail. Now that Apollyon was injured and frustrated there was only one thing that they could possibly think of doing. They would have Apollyon fight a Colossal angel. It had been a little while since they had seen them in action, but they were more than happy to see one in action again.

They remembered designing and shaping the Colossal angels during the elemental wars. It was quite an interesting experience, however they were extremely ineffective and often died at the hands of demons quite quickly. So that first design was scrapped right away. The second design was slightly better, but the pilots were kind of terrible and needed constant instructions. The third one was a lot better. It was more independant and violent than the other ones they used. They were a very good weapons for what they were.

There was a subtle beauty and elegance to their design that made Yoba smile. If they had to compare the pilot angels to anything they would probably compare them to bacteria. Something that was relatively harmless, but could become deadly if left to fester and grow out of control.

They chuckled a little at that thought and happily watched the world go by. From where they sat right now they could see their angels working hard to take care of their farmlands. They could even see several Gar-dinners sorting through the steady stream of souls that flowed in here. While the soul of a human could not be measured by any scientific method it was still there and it was Yoba’s.

Souls came here to be properly processed. The good ones stayed and the bad ones were either eaten by the Gar-dinners or tossed aside. Rotten souls, just like the pathetic bodies they lived inside were completely useless to Yoba. After all they used human souls to nourish the world tree. One might argue that this was a horrible thing, raising humans for slaughter, just so they could harvest a small part of them. However that was what they were for like all farm animals they had a purpose and the purpose of humans was to feed their souls to the world tree to create more worlds.

They briefly wondered how humanity would react if they knew this truth and not the flowery truth of eternal life as they had been promised in the book of Yoba? Well, one doesn’t tell the pig they’re going to the slaughter house now do they? Yoba was just a humble farmer that kept their animals in line. It didn’t matter to them how much or how little these things whined or bitched or moaned. As long as they got what they wanted in the end everything was fine.

Elder squeaked a little with excitement when a Calie-aqua drifted over to them. “Hey there! Haven’t seen one of you for a long time!”

The Calie-aqua chuckled a little and nodded. “Indeed. But that is how we are. We are more elusive than the average Junimo.” Then then fluttered over to Yoba and landed on the ground in front of them. “Yoba, my lord and god… I have gone and made the preparations of wished for. When I asked the Junimos they seemed a little… They were preoccupied with plans of stealing shoes…”

Of course they were. “Thank you for your help. I assume you truly do have everything under control?”

“Yes Yoba. Your will resonated through the Yoba plane without needing to speak a word.”

“Thank you. You may leave now.”

“Of course.” They bowed and quickly took off, much faster than when they arrived.

Yoba noticed the suspicious glances from both the demon and the Wizard. “What? I needed to make sure that this final trial was done correctly. I don’t want any messy stuff ups happening on my part to make this easy on you.”

Apollyon rolled their eyes. “What? You going to have me wade through a vat of Solar essence?”

“That’s needlessly malicious. Do you really think so poorly of me?”

“Yes.”

“... Well can’t say I didn’t expect as much. Anyway, we are here.” They gestured to a coliseum-like structure surrounded by fog. Yoba pointed to the center of the structure. In the middle was a Colossal angel with his head pressed against the ground like it was praying. It wasn’t as huge as some of the others, but it could very easily get the job done for what they wanted from Apollyon. 

The demon didn’t look too pleased. “Now what?”

“It’s quite simple.” Said Yoba. “All you have to do is stop them from attacking you by any means necessary. Once you get into the arena it will activate and relentlessly pursue you. Do whatever comes naturally.”

Apollyon seemed to hesitate a little. “Okay… then after this you turn me into a human, right? That’s the deal.”

“Of course.” Said Yoba calmly. “My trials are tough but beatable. Now please, put on a good show.”


	87. Third trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there everyone. This story is getting close to being finished now. So if there are any loose ends (besides the obvious one of becoming human and what not) Let me know because damn this story is long and I might not remember all the little odds and ends. Kudos and Comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Apollyon leapt down from the platform when it was most convenient for him. All he had to do was take this thing down and start living his life with Sebastian. As soon as his feet hit the ground the Colossal engel seemed to slowly powerup, or wake up as the case may be. It seemed very groggy and lumbering in its movements. Like a child waking up from a nap. The thing’s chin was still resting against the ground.

But those kinds of thoughts were useless to him. What did he care? He was going to kill it. Best to quickly strike while it was still getting its barings. Apollyon quickly lunged at it and punched it hard in the face. It let out a startled groan as it covered its face with one hand and swatted at him with the other.

That hit sent Apollyon flying across the arena and skid across the dirt in a bloody streak. That angel had one powerful arm. He sat up and quickly started stretching his arm and turning his neck, cracking and popping joints. 

Apollyon stood up and dusted himself off. His body was still tired and hurt and in serious pain. He still hadn’t even fully healed from the hole in his side that the world tree caused him. More than likely it would be like that for a while. It kind of hurt and stung a little, but his skin was slowly starting to pull across it. He’d be fine soon.

The Colossal angel was on its feet now. It still looked unsure of its movements. It was almost like watching a newborn fawn trying to find its feet. At least with its stumbling motion Apollyon was able to get a better sense of what this thing actually looked like. It reminded him of a ball-jointed doll but with oddly elongated limbs. It also didn’t really have much of a face either. Just some odd turtle-mouth shape with teeth jutting out and the top of its head was made up of some pink dome.

As interesting as it was to look at, Apollyon was quickly formulating a plan to take it down. It’s joints, like most living creatures, were its weak points. He just had to damage those enough to knock it down, then he could climb this thing and rip into its brain. That would be the easiest thing, wouldn’t it?

He made a quick dash towards it while it still seemed unsure of its own body. He ignored the pain in his legs and leapt through the towards the angel. He was going to try and take out of of its ankles. That was until the angel swiftly turned its head and kicked Apollyon away like he was nothing.

Once again Apollyon skidded across the ground in a painful manner. “Fuck…” He went to sit up screeched in shock when he saw the angel charging towards him. “FUCK!!!” He only just managed to move out of the way before the angel stomped the ground where he was. It was still forceful enough to send him several feet into the air. “Shit!”

Apollyon scrambled away from it as quickly as he possibly could while the angel continued to stomp at the ground. It was almost like a child throwing a temper tantrum the way it jerked and threw its whole body into its movements. It was unsettling and gave it an overall disturbing appearance. Even more so when it started wailing in a strangled high-pitched tone.

Once again he tried to sneak up on the angel to try and climb up their leg. This time they succeeded and managed to scramble up the back of their leg. However it was a little difficult to hold on since this thing was continuing to stomp their feet. 

Against his better judgement, Apollyon decided to go for it and bite at the angel’s leg. His teeth only just managed to penetrate the hard carapace-like skin on the angel. There was also no surprise when a bit of Solar essence oozed out from the bitemark. At least it was thicker than tree sap so he was able to quickly move away from it and continue to climb up the creature.

It continued to swat at him and tried to get him off themselves, but they were lumbering and sluggish in their movement when it came to fine motor skills. So they were able to quickly scramble out of the way to bite them somewhere else. They ended up halfway up the angel’s back before stopping briefly to catch his breath. Suddenly the angel threw itself backwards and Apollyon got crushed under its weight. 

Everything seemed to slow down and go all static in his vision, like a video trying desperately to buffer. His mind wasn’t thinking very clearly either. He couldn’t come up with a coherent phrase or phrase that would make sense to him. In his mind played the glitched out images of Pelican town. Both the people and the places. No matter how injured he was, he was going to keep fighting till he died and then fight some more. 

The angel got and and scooped Apollyon up in its hand, brining it to eye level. It turned him this way and that like he was some ragdoll. If Apollyon could break free he could jump onto its face and rip its brains out. Fuck self preservation this thing was annoying the fuck out of him and he just wanted it to die and stay dead already.

Out of nowhere the angel suddenly squeezed him. Not enough to crush him, but enough to puncture something with a bone and make him cough up blood and Void essence. It hurt. It fucking hurt.

For a moment it looked like angel was hesitant, or at least uninterested, and was about to put him down. Instead it unexpectedly jerked and let out a strange howling noise, letting Apollyon go. It seemed to be in pain of some sort.

However Apollyon didn’t have time to question it. He grabbed hold of one of the creature’s fingers and swung themselves back around to grab onto the angel’s arm. Then, like a cockroach he quickly scrambled up this thing’s arm. He was going to kill it. No matter what. Even if it meant he had to crawl into this things mouth and eat his way out through its chest, he was going to kill it.

He managed to avoid the angel’s swiping hands and made it into its face. He had to be quick here. Apollyon did his best to quickly crawl up to the pink dome that sat on top of the angel’s head. He assumed that braining the bastard would kill it. Braining most things killed them pretty much instantly no matter if they were celestial or demonic.

Apollyon picked a good spot to start digging into the dome when he noticed something moving inside the dome. It was a little difficult to see what it was because of all the other strange fleshy tissue in the way, but he just had to move ever so slightly to see what it was. When he saw it he felt like someone had dumped cold water on him. It was like something a demon would do out of spite.

“No way…”

***

Yoba happily watched the fight. It didn’t matter to them if Apollyon won and killed the Colossal angel or lost and died. Either way the outcome would be the same. They would win. They always won. They were god. They always won. That’s just how things were.

“Fascinating…” Muttered the Wizard. “I’ve always wanted to see one of these things in action. Never thought I would.”

“They are quite interesting creatures.” Said Yoba happily. “Maybe if you come by one day and catch me in a good mood I’ll let you pilot one.”

“Hmm?”

“My angels are unable to pilot the Colossal angels.” Explained Yoba. “My angels were too pure and had to be constantly told what to do. If not they would keep messing things up and running off on their own… And even when they showed some promise they kept getting injured because they couldn’t feel anything. So I made humans.”

The Wizard looked a little confused at their statement. “Pardon?”

“I made humans to pilot my Colossal angels.” Said Yoba. “Humans were a bit of a rush job but I just needed something that could breed quickly, make quick decisions on their own and well, humans fitted that bill quite quickly.” They chuckled a little to themselves. “You were smart, but not smart enough. Your brains were perfectly suited to being perfectly connected to the Colossal angels… Though one might argue the connection was too perfect.”

“... How so?” The Wizard was becoming increasingly worried by his words.

Yoba didn’t really care too much for their worry. “Your physical bodies perfectly synced up with the Colossal angels. Their pain became your pain. Their damage became your damage. If their arm got cut off your arm would be cut off. Sure you are more durable when piloting the Colossal angels but in the end everything ends up broken.”

The Wizard went as white as a sheet. “... So that means that there is a human inside that Colossal angel piloting it right now? Where’s Sebastian?”

Yoba gestured to the Colossal angel. “He’d doing what he was made for. Now obviously he was a little too independent and had a touch too much free will. After being purified and purged of most of his Void essence he’s more than willing to attack anyone or anything I tell him to.”

“And you told Apollyon to kill him?” Asked the Wizard in shock. They looked like they were going to have a panic attack. “If Apollyon takes off that things arm, or leg, or head Sebastian’s going to get mutilated too… Why would you do this?”

“Because demons don’t deserve happiness. It’s as simple as that.” They settled into their chair and sighed contently. “Demons are monstrous creatures that must be put to death for the sake of the rest of my creations. As far as I am concerned that human you call Sebastian was unclean by shamelessly declaring their love for a monster. At least with their sacrifice they can partially atone for his actions.”

The Wizard was trembling now. But it was impossible to tell if it was out of anger or fear. “Sebastian hasn’t done anything wrong. How can you forsake one of your own creations because of their feelings towards a demon? You’re a god.”

Yoba couldn’t help a little but laugh at this point. “Do you know the difference between a god and a demon? It’s the name. Only the name is different. If some other demon decided to start using their power and energy into creating rather than doing hedonistic things then there would be more gods for you to know.” They pointed at the Wizard and spoke in a cruel tone. “I’m just your god because I created you, and I know I a proud and prideful. That is what I am and always will be. I do not like it when one of my things play around with a thing that I do not like.”

“... You’re not going to turn Apollyon into a human, are you?”

“If he gets killed by Sebastian I will erase him. If he killed Sebastian I’ll let him change his wish to bring Sebastian back to life.” They laughed a little as they went back to watching the fight. “Even then if they choose to become human anyway they will have failed the trial and they will lose. After all the trials were never as simple as just get from point A to point B.”

Everything had been planned out as soon as they heard everyone’s testimony. Green said they were good to people, and they passed it by not letting the evils of humanity keep them locked in an endless sleep of self-hatred. The Wizard said they were good to the environment and they had proved it by getting the World tree on their side instead of absorbing them. Then Sebastian declared their love which if Apollyon reciprocated that love they would let Sebastian kill them. Now should they have told Apollyon that they were fighting Sebastian? Yes, but where was the fun in that?

***

Parts of Sebastian’s body had been consumed my the strange fibrous tissue that made up most of the Colossal angel’s head. Most of the tissue seemed to cluster around his head, eyes, and spinal cord. When Apollyon strained his eyes he could vaguely see a small series of cuts along Sebastian’s leg and arm.

Why was this happening? Why was this happening to Sebastian? Was he getting those cuts because of him? They looked like they were in similar places as to where he had struck the angel. Was this what the Elder Junimo meant when they said they needed a living soul to power it? Colossal angels needed humans to power them?

Did Sebastian even know what he was doing or what was going on? This thing had to be doing something to him, he just knew it. He had to get Sebastian out of there. He steadied his hand and struck the dome with force causing a huge crack to form. However as soon as he struck the angel a dark bruise and a cut appeared on Sebastian’s cheek. The angel cried out in pain and swiped Apollyon off their face.

Once again Apollyon hit the ground but now he didn’t know if he could get up and fight. If he attacked the angel it would hurt Sebastian. If he killed the angel he would kill Sebastian. He wouldn’t be able to kill him. There was no way. But if he didn’t kill him then he couldn’t get his wish to be human could he? 

Yoba planned this from the start. They, the god of all things in this bitter paradise. It didn’t matter to them if he passed or failed the first two trials. They rigged it so that they wouldn’t be able to pass the third one. If they won Sebastian would be dead. If they lost they would still be dead. 

This wasn’t fair. Then again they should have known by now life was never fair to demons. Demons never got happiness. Demons just existed for the soul purpose of misery. Whether they spread it or cause it, it didn’t matter.Misery was the end goal for him.

He rolled a little onto his side and felt something hard jab his leg. Apollyon reached into what was left of his pants pocket and took out the pendant his mother had given him. If he fiddled around with it he would more than likely find the part that would make the needle spring out and he’d inject himself with a lethal dose of Solar essence.

As he wondered if he should use this he remembered what the world tree had said. They needed to listen carefully to what Yoba said. He had done that right? Yoba told him to kill the Colossal angel to win the trial...

No.

No they didn’t. Apollyon just needed them to stop attacking him. But if this was an angel that was made to kill him what chance did he have of stopping it? How much control of it did Sebastian even have? Was Sebastian making any kind of conscious decision or was it just using his mind to perform movements and other functions? He had no idea and honestly he didn’t really have time to think about this.

The Colossal angel was now looming over him and breathing heavily. Everyone of its muscles seemed to be strained as it processed what it should do or needed to do. Maybe it was having an internal conflict? Maybe Sebastian’s consciousness was breaking through and trying to save him? That would have been a nice thought, but he had no idea.

For a long time he had thought he would be okay with Sebastian killing him. He was the one he loved and cared for the most out of any humans. To die by the hands of someone he loved so much would be a blessing for something like him right? But after seeing how distressed Sebastian became after that incident in the mines he knew he couldn’t let Sebastian live with that burden.

Again the angel picked him up and intended to crush him to death. But Apollyon didn’t want this and wasn’t going to let Yoba win this way. He quickly fiddled with the pendant some more until he felt something sharp pop out of it and pierce his skin.

Almost immediately a flood of heat washed over him followed by a numbing cold. Everything started to go blurry as he felt the Void essence slowly running out of his eyes, ears, nose, and every other orifice and open wound on his body. He was dying and it felt cold. It felt final. 

At least, if he could, he could say he completed everyone of Yoba’s trails. There was no way the angel could or would keep attacking him if he was dead, right? Speculation or not it didn’t really matter to him. He was dying and he felt cold. So cold. He was cold and he couldn’t see or hear anything anymore. He was fading away. He just wished he could have seen Sebastian’s face one more time or told him that he loved him just once more.


	88. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, so close to the end! I'm so excited! Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Sebastian felt sick, like he had been thrown into a vortex and drowned repeatedly. Suddenly his body was violently thrown from where it was and he felt himself slide across the ground. He groaned and started coughing. What happened? The last thing he remembered was speaking to some flying fish angel and falling asleep. Now he was drained of pretty much all his energy and felt like shit.

He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes, quickly adjusting back to the sudden light. He was in some kind of arena? Maybe? There was some kind of strange. The last thing he remembered was sitting in some pond and… He quickly looked down and was relieved to see that he was still wearing his underwear.

“Sebastian!” The Wizard ran over to him looking extremely worried. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Yeah, I’m fine I think…” Sebastian still felt sick but he was slowly starting to feel better. “Where’s Apollyon?”

“...”

“... Where is Apollyon?”

“It um… It doesn’t matter right now. We just need to make sure that you’re okay right now.”

There was something wrong. Something terribly wrong going on here. “Where is Apollyon? Apollyon!” Apollyon!” He looked around frantically for any sign of Apollyon. He saw the Colossal angel laying on the ground with something in its clenched hand. Whatever it was holding it was hunched over and and leaking black everywhere. “... No.”

He stumbled over to the Colossal angel’s hand and gazed in abject horror at the cold, lifeless body of Apollyon. His eyes were completely glazed over and he couldn’t stop leaking Void essence from his body. It made Sebastian’s blood run cold.

Sebastian reached out and touched Apollyon’s face. It was cold. What the fuck happened? But this was okay right? Apollyon could come back to life. He’d done it before. He got cut up into little pieces. He had a car dropped on him. This was nothing. He’d be okay. He just needed a few minutes and he would be alive again.

“H-hey. Wake up already would you?” He lightly slapped Apollyon’s cheek. “Come on. Wake up. I know you can do it so just… Just wake up already.”

The Wizard put his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “Sebastian…”

“Just give him a minute.”

“Sebas-”

“GIVE HIM A MINUTE!” He snapped. Sebastian knew he was starting to sound desperate, but they were. Apollyon couldn’t just be dead. How the hell could he? He didn't die. Dying wasn’t something he did. This wasn’t right. This was just wrong. “He’ll be up in a minute… You’ll see… He just needs some time…”

The Wizard sighed a little and gently squeezed his shoulder. “Sebastian… Apollyon is dead. There isn’t anything that can be done now…”

“... What was the trial? What did Apollyon had to do?”

“It doesn’t matter any-”

“What was the trial?”

“Yoba said that Apollyon had to stop the Colossal angel from attacking him… Neither of knew that you were the one controlling it.”

Sebastian felt his stomach turn. “I killed him? Again? No… You’re lying I didn’t… I didn’t do this. I…”

Yoba couldn’t help but laugh at the tragic scene before them. “Wow. You really were taken in by a demon weren’t you? It’s pitiful really. Demons are the kings of deceit and lies. Emotional manipulation is par for the course when it comes to them. In the end they would have just manipulated you into doing some terrible things and all for the sake of that thing you call love. It was just a way of bonding I created so you stupid humans would make more humans and keep each other safe. Demons have never and will never care about-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Sebastian had snapped. This was not how things were meant to go. Apollyon was dead and why was he dead? He wanted to be human for him. He wanted to love with Sebastian as a human and Yoba was meant to be some loving god that would help them. Everything was a lie and he was done. “FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR!”

The Wizard quickly pulled Sebastian back. “Sebastian, you can’t talk to Yoba like that. He’s your damn god for crying out loud.”

“Why?! He doesn’t give a flying fuck about you, me, or anyone. When was the last time that self-righteous cunt decided to interact with humanity? That prideful fuck only gave a shit about this because Apollyon’s a demon! If Apollyon was just some human that was sick or something Yoba probably would have snapped their fingers and that would have been it. But no, Apollyon is a demon so no matter what he’s automatically a monster! Fuck that shit!” He felt like he was quickly becoming out of breath at his rant.

“You still can’t speak to them like this.” Hissed the Wizard. He pulled Sebastian closer and spoke in hushed tones. “Do you think I’m telling you this because I think everything Yoba did was right? Do you really think Apollyon would want you to get killed by Yoba for insulting them like this?”

“...”

Yoba sighed a little. Very unamused by Sebastian’s insults. “Honestly, I do not see why you continue to act like this. You’re acting like a child for no reason. The demon failed the final trail in quite a spectacular fashion. The Colossal angel crushed him to deal and because of the high amount of Solar essence in this realm he couldn’t regenerate, and died. Simple as that. Would someone please retrieve the human’s clothes from the pond he was in… And please don’t tell me the Junimos took their clothes for whatever reason, again.”

Sebastian felt like he was going to be sick. He didn’t remember anything after falling asleep in the pond and waking up on the ground. What did he do? He shouldn’t have attacked Apollyon. He never would. Why? Yoba must have made him to it somehow. It made him want to cry. In fact he was.

The Wizard didn’t really know what to do. “... Yoba, if it is at all possible could we please take Apollyon’s body back to earth so we can bury him? All parts that made him demon here have essentially been squeezed out of him for the most part and well… It would bring some closure to us if we could...”

Yoba seemed amused by this notion. “Why? I’m going to completely erase him for existence in both memory and body. No one will know or care about their existence…. But if you must, I don’t see why not.” The flicked one of their wings and with a sickening crack the hand holding Apollyon snapped open and his lifeless husk slowly fell out. It sounded like someone ripping sticky tape off a wall. His whole body was mutilated beyond all reasonable recognition. Sebastian was sick.

Suddenly one of the fish angels dropped off Sebastian’s clothes hear him, making him jump a little. He quickly pulled his clothes back on and retreated into his hoodie. He was upset and disgusted with everything that had just happened. None of this was fair. 

“... There’s something in his hand.”

Sebastian couldn’t look at the body but he wanted to know. “What is it?”

“Some kind of pendant by the look of it…” He took it out of Apollyon’s hand and showed it to Sebastian. It looked like a dagger with a plant engraved into it. At the very tip of the dagger was a tiny needle. “Do you know what this is?”

He took the pendant from the Wizard and stared at it. It seemed familiar somehow, but he couldn’t quite place it. Suddenly it clicked. He remembered Apollyon talking to him about a way out with his mum. This had to be it. Apollyon wasn’t completely stupid.

“... He didn’t fail.” He muttered. He looked up at Yoba and pointed at them. “Hey! Apollyon failed because I killed him right?”

“That is correct. Why?”

“Because you said the only way Apollyon would pass is if they managed to get that angel to stop attacking them, right? Well they didn’t kill Apollyon. I didn’t kill him. Apollyon passed Apollyon passed the third trail!”

They scoffed. “What nonsense is this? Can you not see their mangled body? They got crushed to death.”

“They got crushed but that didn’t kill them!” Sebastian held up the pendant. “See this? Apollyon committed suicide! They killed themselves. You never said if they died they would fail. Death wasn’t even part of the lose scenario! Apollyon won! You lose!”

***

Everything went quiet. Not just the people within the vicinity, the whole Yoba plane went dead silent. Yoba was quietly seething. They had been bested and by a demon no less. They way they worded it was meant to make it impossible for Apollyon to win. It wasn’t meant to backfire on them. How the fuck could a dead demon have bested them?

They could figure this out. They could come up with a way that Apollyon actually failed. They died, but the won. That wasn’t right. They were Yoba. Yoba always won. This was their realm. Only they could win here. Not some demon scum from the Void.

The sky became black as the sound of thunder echoed around them along with flashes of lightning. The lightning struck around them in an erratic pattern. They were Yoba. They were the one that wins. Everyone else had to lose because they weren’t gods. They couldn’t do what they did. Why did they fail? 

That stupid Colossal angel. It didn’t do its job fast enough. It should have just killed Apollyon. Smashed him like a bug. That demon. That fucking demon. It shouldn’t even exist. It completely fucked with everything. It should have just stayed in the Void where it belonged. That disgusting abomination just had to fuck around with their things. They should have just left well enough alone.

Yoba let out an enraged scream as all their wings completely unfurled to reveal their complete body. At the center of their wings was a giant glass sphere containing a creature akin to a fetus. The many arms that they had circled under them like a skirt but was spinning rapidly as if in tune with their own anger. As they screamed lightly bolts repeatedly struck the Colossal angel until it turned to a charred mess. 

“USELESS!” They screamed. “YOU’RE ALL FUCKING USELESS! I DEMAND ONE FUCKING THING OF YOU AND YOU ALL FAIL ME! WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER TRYING WITH YOU? YOU’RE ALL USELESS! STUPID! PATHETIC! I AM YOUR GOD! I AM THE GOD OF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE! I MADE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW AND THIS FUCKING THING BESTS ME?! UNFORGIVABLE! UNFORGIVABLE! UNFORGIVABLE! ” 

They reveled in the panic and fear their outburst had on the humans below. Good. They should be scared. They angered their god. They pissed them off. In the old days this kind of act would have Yoba go right ahead and curse whole cities with disease and natural disasters. Was it petty? Not in their eyes. 

These stupid humans were begging for divine punishment. They would cast them away from the rest of humanity and trap them in a dimension where they would wish for death but it will never come. They’ll be cursed to live forever in isolation. Now that wasn’t to say they wouldn’t stop them from aging. Their consciousness would remain long after their muscles atrophied and their bones deteriorated. They would curse them. Curse them forever and ever and ever.

Elder huffed and stuck their hands on their hips, giving Yoba a stern look. “That’s not nice. Not even Yoba can win all the time.”

Yoba glared down at them. “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!”

Elder squeaked a little, not liking the fact that Yoba was yelling at them. “If Yoba wins all the time then Yoba can’t learn from it and get even more creative next time. Besides, Yoba is a creation god. Not a god if infallible games. It’s just rude to yell and throw lighting everywhere. No one will want to play with you anymore if you do that and that’s not nice.”

Yoba stared at the golden Junimo in complete disbelief. What they said kind of made sense? In a Junimo logic kind of way. The sky cleared and Yoba sat back on their throne with their arms carefully tucked back inside their folded wings. They sighed in exasperation.

“Why is it out of all my angels you are always the one that makes the most sense?”

Elder shrugged. “I think simply. I think that helps. Now, you need to keep up your end of the deal. Turn that demon into a human… A living human. Everyone has suffered enough because of this.”

Yoba sighed again and their feathers ruffled. “Haven’t had to do some transmutation since I was Belcifer… Fine.” They clapped their hands hand called out to their angels. “Bring me the juice of one unripened world fruit.”

Moments later one of the bird-like angels that tended to the World tree came by with a leaf full of a shiny, dark blue liquid in a leaf. The liquid sparkled in the light and would slowly change colour over time. It was like someone had taken the night sky and put it in a leaf. Which in all honesty was exactly what this was. The juice of an unripened world fruit was essentially a pool of primordial soup at a galactic level. It would bring forth life in all forms as it matured but as of now its potential was so great it could be anything given the right conditions.

Apollyon’s body was practically a husk right now. All Void essence forcefully expelled and squeezed out of him till there was nothing but a human husk. The perfect untainted scaffold for the juice to work its magic and create a perfect human.

Yoba gestured to Apollyon’s body. “Pour it on that. Every last drop. Then you may leave.”

The angel looked shocked. “M-my lord and benevolent god… Are you sure? Not that I am questioning your judgement or anything but…”

“Did I fucking stutter you impudent angel?” Snarled Yoba. “I am already in a bad mood so do as I say and don’t ask stupid questions.”

“Y-yes Yoba. Right away Yoba.”

The angel quickly flew down to Apollyon’s body and poured the juice over him before quickly leaving. Not wishing to incur the wrath of their god. With that out of the way Yoba sat back and watched Apollyon’s body reform. It was slightly grotesque the way it popped and reinflated, but it was still fascinating to watch.

Within moments Sebastian was by his side and squeezing his hand. “Apollyon… Wake up. Please… Please wake up… Come on. Open your eyes…”


	89. Moving forward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this is it. The last chapter. Thank you so much for sticking with this for so long. It's made me so happy to be able to share this with people and its been a joy to read and respond to everyone's comments. I honestly wouldn't have written something this long if I was just writing for myself. You all have helped me keep going. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Abigail was ten seconds away from committing murder and had to be held back by Sam while Sebastian hid on the other side of the pool table. “Let me at him! Let me at him!” She barked. “Son of a bitch goes to the Void without me, and then he goes to the Yoba plane like it’s nothing! Nothing! Let me at him!”

“Calm down Abby.” Said Sam in a calming voice. “It didn’t really sound like it was a walk in the park for Sebastian either.”

“Yeah, but… Magic!” She whined. I’m the magic one! I’m the one who knows this stuff dang it!”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Hey, I didn’t know I was going to go there either. It kind of just happened… Don’t kick my ass…”

Abby huffed and continued to squirm in Sam’s arms. “Boy I will march over there and kick your skinny white ass from here to eternity!”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Come on Abby. I swear the next time something happens I’ll tell you. It was just kind of a last minute thing. I swear.”

She still wasn’t convinced and continued to sulk. “Asshole.”

Sam just sighed and cautiously let her go. “So how is Apollyon adjusting to human life?”

“He’s still getting used to it. Most of its a strength thing. He keeps forgetting he can’t heal himself like he used to. I think it annoys him a little.”

“Anyone would be annoyed by that.” Said Sam as he set up the pool table. “Well as long as he takes it easy things should be okay, right?”

“I guess…” Sebastian grabbed some pool cues. “But needless to say I’m not super thrilled about heading back to the Yoba plane any time soon. Too much bullshit going on there… And the angels are kind of dicks too.”

“Speaking of dicks,” Chimed in Abby. “Where’s Apollyon?”

Apollyon walked into the arcade with a grin on his face and his arm in a cast. “Someone said my name?”

Sebastian frowned a little at his boyfriend. “You should be at home resting. You’re still not used to being human. You’re going to hurt yourself again.”

Apollyon poked his tongue out and sat on the couch beside Abby. “Yes Sebastian… Not my fault I got my arm stuck between Mootilda and the barn wall…” He looked over at Abby. “New cow. I thought she was old enough to be milked. She was not and got a little mad at me.”

“Ah, okay.” She looked at his cast and noted all the signatures that had been scribbled on. “So, Sebastian was just informing as as to why you’ve been gone for like, three weeks…. So you’re all human now? No demon left?”

Apollyon grinned. “Yeah! This is really cool! Like, okay being a demon was cool and all but now everything just has so much more meaning. Cause like now I have a shorter amount of time. I no longer have forever to do things… It makes me so happy. And look, I broke my arm this morning and now it’s in a cast! I can’t heal super fast anymore. I can get sick.”

Abby frowned. “Never thought I’d see someone happy about getting fucked up by life. Good for you.”

“Yep.” He took a pen out of his pocket and handed it over to her. “Wanna sign my cast?”

“Damn right I do.” She took the pen off him and quickly scribbled a message along with a little stick figure devil while Sam and Sebastian played pool together. It was a fun night full of merry making and drinking at the saloon. Though Sebastian couldn’t help but glance over at Apollyon once in a while. 

He was still a little worried about how Apollyon carried himself. He kept hurting himself by accident when they were unceremoniously thrown out of the Yoba plane and back onto the farm. It was kind of odd, a new spark was just lit inside him and he kept wanting to work on the farm, which meant he kept getting hurt, but that just made him want to work harder to test the limits of his human body. Thankfully he had promised to tone it down after Mootilda broke his arm.

The two of them eventually left the saloon together and made their way back to the farm, but Apollyon insisted that they stopped off at the community center first. So the two of them went inside and were happily greeted by the Junimos. The bounced and squeaked and ran around them both.

Apollyon laughed a little and handed a few items to the bouncing sprites. “Here you guys go. I think this is the last of the stuff you wanted.”

“So you finally finished all the bundles?” Asked Sebastian.

Apollyon nodded. “Yep.” He lightly pushed a Junimo that was carrying a jar of pickles towards the hut. “... Thanks for putting up with me over the past few days. I know it wasn’t easy to see me running around like an idiot and falling asleep outside because I got home at like two in the morning.”

“You’re excited. I can’t blame you for that… Just don’t do anything weird that’ll get you really hurt.”

“Yes sir.”

Suddenly the Junimos were squealing with excitement. They looked like they were celebrating the fact that Apollyon had gone and finished their last bundle. Graan ran up to him and tugged on his pants before reaching up. Apollyon smiled and picked the Junimo up. It happily danced around on the palm of his hand.

“Tank ooo!” Green squealed. “Dat was da last bundle… Farewell… Apollyon.”

“Gud-bai!” Squealed the Junimos on the floor as they jumped in excitement. “Gud-bai! Gud-bai! Bai-bai mr hewow! Bai-bai!” 

There was a flash of light that blinded Sebastian for a moment, but after blinking a few times the spots in front of his eyes had vanished and so too is seemed did the Junimos and the little Junimo hut in the corner of the room. The community center finally looked like it was well repaired. It was quite amazing and to be completely honest Sebastian was really shocked.

“Wow… So what just happened?”

“The Junimos went back home.” Said Apollyon. “They needed me to rebuild the community center and now that it’s like this they no longer need to be here.” He was smiling, but there was a slight sadness in his eyes. He had a similar look on his face when he finished talking on the phone with his mum the other day. He didn’t say anything then because he didn’t know what to say and frankly he didn’t know what to say now either.

“Hey… Are you okay?” Sebastian held his hand and gently squeezed. “I um… I know it must be tough the giving up magic stuff completely thing but um… No one is disappointed or upset in you. You did what you thought was best.”

“Yeah…”

“... Don’t tell me you’re going to miss those apple bastards now?”

Apollyon couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. “What? Me? Miss those guys? … Maybe a little. They’ve kind of always been part of the valley since I’ve been here and now well… All the magic is going and I’m left here all alone.”

“You’re not alone ya dummy.” He smiled at his lover. “You’ve never been alone. You’ve had me and everyone else since the start. So don’t worry about being alone. You just have to put up with us non magical weirdos for the rest of your life.”

Apollyon nodded a little and nervously bit on his bottom lip. “Yeah I guess… But I’d rather not be lonely for the rest of our lives… together.” He got down on one knee and Sebastian’s heart felt like it stopped. Was this what he thought it was? Apollyon too a blue shell out of his pocket and held it up to him. “Sebastian… You’ve been with me through so much. You’ve seen the best and worst parts of me over and over again. You make me want to be a better person and I feel like as long as we’re together we can bring out the best in each other… So, what do you say? Will you marry me?”

“Yes!” He blurted. Sebastian pulled Apollyon to his feet and hugged him tightly as he kissed him. “Seriously, if you hadn’t have asked me soon I was gonna go out and buy a ring for you.”

Apollyon blushed and smiled. “Really? You would have gotten me a ring?”

“Yeah, I read that’s what they do in Zuzu city.”

“You’re too sweet. Here.” He handed the shell over and Sebastian quickly dug around in his pockets for some string. 

He never knew what he had in his pockets. Eventually he came across the clay pendant Apollyon had given him so many seasons ago to protect him from his demon self. He looked at it for a moment before threading the shell onto it to sit alongside the clay circle. It felt fitting to do so.

Apollyon blushed brighter and helped Sebastian put it on. “... You look breathtaking.”

“Thanks.” Sebastian could feel his own blush coming on. “... You know, I would have said yes even if you were still a demon.”

“Yes… But I wouldn’t have felt right about it.” Apollyon brushed some hair out of Sebastian’s face. “I felt like there would always be a barrier between us because we were essentially different species that functioned rather differently and I… I didn’t want my existence as a demon to the cause of any of your misery.”

Sebastian chuckled a little and moved Apollyon’s hand off his face. “Come on Apollyon. Stop being so sentimental. You’re a human now. Be a bit of an asshole.”

He laughed a little and started to lead his fiance towards the door. Tonight they would spend in each other’s arms on Hellfire farm. Tomorrow they would announce their engagement to the rest of the valley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To everyone that commented, tho those that left a kudos, to those that bookmarked, and to those who just decided to read; 
> 
> Thank you.


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